Systems and methods for selectively storing specific versions of media assets

ABSTRACT

Systems and methods provided herein for intelligently distinguishing between different versions of a media asset and selectively storing those requested media assets that differ from versions that were previously stored in some pre-defined characteristics. These systems and methods, upon identifying a version of the requested media asset was previously stored, determine a characteristic of the requested media asset. These systems and methods compare the characteristic of the requested media asset with a corresponding characteristic of the version of the requested media asset that was previously stored to determine a difference between the two versions. The systems and methods then determine whether the difference in characteristic renders the requested media asset preferable over the previously stored version. Upon determining that the requested media asset is preferable over the previously stored version, the systems and methods store the requested media asset.

BACKGROUND

In media systems in the related art, a media asset may be available indifferent versions from one or more sources. For example, differentversions of a media asset may differ in resolution, audio support,content, language of sub-titles, ratings and other such features. Mediastorage systems often receive requests to store a media asset that hasbeen previously stored. In such situations, media storage systems alwaysstore the media asset, provided that there is available storage space todo so. As a result, multiple copies of the same version of a media assetmay be stored, resulting in inefficient usage of storage capacity.

SUMMARY

Systems and methods are provided herein for selectively re-storingversions of a media asset that are preferable to a user over versions ofthe media asset that were previously stored. By doing so, these systemsand methods prevent the user from wasting storage capacity by re-storingless preferred versions of media assets. These systems and methods, uponreceiving a request to store a first version of a media from a user,determine whether a second version of the media asset was previouslystored by the user. Upon determining that a second version of the mediaasset was previously stored by the user, these systems and methodsdetermine whether the user prefers the second version to the firstversion. The systems and methods may determine which version ispreferable by comparing a characteristic associated with the firstversion with a corresponding characteristic associated with the secondversion to determine a difference between the two versions. The systemsand methods may then compare the determined difference in characteristicwith entries in a list of pre-defined differences between the firstversion and the second version for which the first version should bestored to determine whether the user prefers the first version. Thesystems and methods, in response to determining that the user prefersthe first version to the second version, store the first version. Thesystems and methods, in response to determining that the user prefersthe second version, refrain from storing the first version.

In some aspects, a media guidance application may receive, from a user,a request to store a media asset. For example, the media guidanceapplication may receive a request from a user Tom to record the mediaasset “How I Met Your Mother, Series Finale” on a DVR. As anotherexample, the media guidance application may receive a request from theuser Tom to burn the media asset “How I Met Your Mother, Series Finale”on a DVD. The media guidance application may access a data structure,associated with a profile of the user, that contains information aboutmedia assets that were previously stored by the user to determinewhether a version of the media asset was previously stored by the user.For example, the media guidance application may access a user historytable data structure associated with Tom's user profile to determinewhether a version of the media asset “How I Met Your Mother, SeriesFinale” was previously recorded, downloaded, burnt or transferred to auser equipment associated with the user).

The media guidance application may determine which specific datastructure containing information about media assets that were previouslystored by the user to access based on receiving an unique credentialassociated with the user (e.g., log-in information such as a string ofcharacters or bio-metric data such as finger print, retina scan, voicerecognition or another suitable bio-metric data) from the user.Alternatively, the media guidance application may receive an identifierassociated with the user equipment on which the storing request is madeand the media guidance application may determine the identity of theuser by retrieving a user credential corresponding to the userequipment. The media guidance application may then access the userhistory table data structure associated with the identified user.

The media guidance application may determine whether a version of themedia asset was previously stored by querying the data structure thatcontains information about media assets that were previously stored forthe media asset. The media guidance application may retrieve anidentifier for the media asset (e.g., media asset title, media assetserial code or any other suitable identifier) from metadata associatedwith the media asset. Additionally or alternatively, the media guidanceapplication may access a database (e.g., a content rights managementdatabase) associated with the content source providing the media assetto determine an identifier for the media asset. The media guidanceapplication may query, using database management languages (e.g., SQL,JAPQL, CODASYL or another suitable language), the data structurecontaining information about versions of media assets that werepreviously stored for media assets that are associated with theidentifier for the media asset. For example, the media guidanceapplication may use the media asset title “How I Met Your Mother, SeriesFinale” and SQL SELECT command to query the user history tableassociated with Tom's user profile to determine whether a version of themedia asset “How I Met Your Mother, Series Finale” was previouslyrecorded by Tom.

In some embodiments, the data structure containing information aboutpreviously stored media assets may be implemented on a cloud server andmay contain information about media assets stored on multiple userequipment associated with the user. For example, user equipment DVR,tablet, and cell phone may be associated with the user Tom. For example,the user history table associated with Tom's user profile may beimplemented on a cloud server and contain information about media assetsstored on the DVR, tablet, and cell phone. In alternative embodiments,the data structure containing information about previously stored mediaassets may be implemented on a user equipment and may containinformation about media assets stored on multiple user equipmentassociated with the user. For example, the user history table associatedwith Tom's user profile may be implemented on the DVR and containinformation about media assets stored on the DVR, tablet, and cellphone. In alternative embodiments, the data structure containinginformation about previously stored media assets may be implementedlocally on an user equipment and may contain information about mediaassets stored only on that user equipment. For example, the user historytable associated with Tom's user profile may be implemented on the DVRand contain information about only media assets recorded on the DVR.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may identifymultiple user equipment associated with the profile of the user. Forexample, the media guidance application may access a registered devicesdata structure associated with Tom's user profile to determine that userequipment DVR, tablet, and cell phone are associated with the user Tom.The media guidance application may receive data about media assets thatwere previously stored by the user on each of the multiple userequipment. In some embodiments, the media guidance application mayperiodically query each of the user equipment associated with theprofile of the user for information about media assets stored the userequipment. For example, the media guidance application may query a DVRassociated with the user every twenty minutes for information aboutmedia assets recorded on the DVR. Additionally or alternatively, themedia guidance application may automatically receive information aboutmedia assets stored each time a storing operation is initiated on any ofthe multiple user equipment associated with the profile of the user. Forexample, the media guidance application may automatically receive anotification each time a DVD burner burns a DVD.

The media guidance application may store, in the data structureassociated with the profile of the user that contains information aboutthe media assets that were previously stored by the user, the data. Forexample, the media guidance application may receive a notification thatmedia asset “How I Met Your Mother, Series Finale” with characteristics“SD,” “actual ending,” and “Spanish sub-titles” was recorded on thetablet. The media guidance application may save this information as arecord in the user history table data structure associated with Tom'suser profile. The media guidance application may determine whether aversion of the media asset was previously stored by accessing the datastored in the data structure associated with the profile of the user.For example, upon receiving a request to store the media asset “How IMet Your Mother, Series Finale,” the media guidance application mayretrieve the record corresponding the version of the media asset “How IMet Your Mother, Series Finale” stored on the tablet from the userhistory table data structure and determine that a version of the mediaasset “How I Met Your Mother, Series Finale” was previously recorded.

The media guidance application may, in response to determining that aversion of the media asset was previously stored by the user, determinea characteristic associated with the version of the media asset that waspreviously stored. The characteristic can be but is not limited toprogram content (e.g., director's cut, inclusion of commercial,promotional content related to media asset, alternative ending),language options (e.g., language of sub-titles, language of dubbing,voice narration of content), audio support (e.g., Dolby Digital EX,Dolby Digital Surround EX, Dolby TrueHD), resolution (e.g., SD, HD, 4K),content rating (PG-13, R, U). The media guidance application may use ametadata extraction tool to parse metadata associated with the versionof the media asset that was previously stored and extract thecharacteristic. Additionally or alternatively, the media guidanceapplication may query the data structure containing information aboutmedia assets that were previously stored for a value associated with afield corresponding to the characteristic. For example, the mediaguidance application may query the user history table data structureassociated with Tom's user profile for the value corresponding to theresolution field associated with the previously recorded version of “HowI Met Your Mother, Series Finale” and the media guidance application maydetermine the characteristic to be SD.

The media guidance application may compare the characteristic associatedwith the version of the media asset that was previously stored with acorresponding characteristic associated with the media asset to identifya difference between the characteristic associated with the version ofthe media asset that was previously stored and the correspondingcharacteristic associated with the media asset. For example, the mediaguidance application may determine that the corresponding resolutioncharacteristic associated with the requested media asset “How I Met YourMother, Series Finale” is 4K. For example, the media guidanceapplication may use a Boolean comparison operation to determine if thecharacteristic associated with the version of the media asset that waspreviously stored and the corresponding characteristic associated withthe media asset are identical. Upon receiving a “identical=false” resultfrom the comparison operation, the media guidance application maydetermine that there is a difference between the characteristicassociated with the version of the media asset that was previouslystored and the corresponding characteristic associated with the mediaasset. For example, the media guidance application may determine thedifference in characteristic between the requested and previouslyrecorded version of “How I Met Your Mother, Series Finale” is that theformer has 4K resolution whereas the latter has SD resolution. The mediaguidance application may encapsulate the difference in a suitableformat. As a non-limiting example, the media guidance application mayencapsulate the difference by appending the characteristic associatedwith the version of the media asset that was previously stored to thecorresponding characteristic associated with the media asset with aseparator indicator in between (e.g., dash, comma, space or othersuitable indicator). In this case, the media guidance application maydetermine the difference to be SD-4K (i.e., characteristic associatedwith the previously stored version-corresponding characteristicassociated with the requested media asset).

The media guidance application may determine whether the difference isincluded in a database of pre-defined differences for which storingshould be performed. For example, the media guidance application mayquery a database of pre-defined differences for which storing should beperformed for the difference SD-4K. Manners in which the media guidanceapplication may perform this query discussed previously are applicablehere. In some embodiments, the database of pre-defined differences forwhich storing should be performed may be associated with the profile ofthe user. In some embodiments, the media guidance application mayreceive user selection of differences to be included in the database ofpre-defined differences for which storing should be performed. Inalternative embodiments, individual preferences for pre-defineddifferences may not be maintained and the database of pre-defineddifferences may contain default values for all users.

In some embodiments, media guidance application may dynamically updatethe database of pre-defined differences for which storing should beperformed based on a user's media consumption habits. The media guidanceapplication may monitor media consumption habits of the user. The mediaguidance application may determine, based on the user's mediaconsumption habits, versions of media assets that are most preferred bythe user. For example, the database of pre-defined differences for whichstoring should be performed may be associated with the user Tom. Themedia guidance application may monitor media assets viewed by Tom andtrack Tom's interactions with these various media assets. The mediaguidance application may extrapolate, from the data about Tom's mediaconsumption habits (e.g., genre of media assets watched,fast-forwarding, rewinding, re-watching trends and other suitable data),that Tom prefers to watch media assets in the highest resolutionavailable. The media guidance application may also determine that Tomnever watches media assets with sub-titles and consequently, language ofsub-titles is of little importance to Tom.

The media guidance application may then determine, based on versions ofmedia assets that are most preferred by the user, differences for whichstoring should be performed. The media guidance application may storethe differences in the database of pre-defined differences for whichstoring should be performed. For example, the media guidance applicationmay determine that differences corresponding to the requested mediaasset having a higher resolution than the version that was previouslystored should be included in the database of pre-defined differences forwhich storing should be performed. For example, the media guidanceapplication may determine SD-HD, HD-4K and SD-4K as differences forwhich storing should be performed and save these differences in thedatabase of pre-defined differences for which storing should beperformed.

In come embodiments, the media guidance application may dynamicallyupdate the database of pre-defined differences for which storing shouldbe performed based on available storage capacity on a user equipment onwhich the media asset is to be stored. The media guidance applicationmay determine the user equipment on which the media asset is to bestored. The media guidance application may determine whether availablestorage capacity on the user equipment is less than a threshold storagecapacity. For example, the media guidance application may determine,based on a user equipment identifier received with the store request,that the media asset “How I Met Your Mother, Series Finale” is to berecorded on the cell phone. The media guidance application may access adata structure associated the cell phone (e.g., device properties datastructure) to determine the cell phone's available storage capacity. Themedia guidance application may access another data structure (e.g.,parameters threshold values data structure) to determine the thresholdstorage capacity. The threshold storage capacity may be a fixed value(e.g., 100 MB) or a variable value determined based on the storagecapacity required for storing the media asset (e.g., threshold storagecapacity=storage capacity required for storing the mediaasset+pre-defined extra storage capacity).

The media guidance application may, in response to determining that theavailable storage capacity on the user equipment is less than thethreshold storage capacity, assign priority values to the differencesincluded in the database of pre-defined differences for which storingshould be performed. For example, the media guidance application maydetermine that resolution is more important to the user Tom thanlanguage of sub-titles. Accordingly, the media guidance application mayassign the resolution differences higher priority than language ofsub-titles differences. For example, the media guidance application mayassign SD-HD, HD-4K and SD-4K differences priority values of 10 andFrench sub-titles-English sub-titles priority values of 1. In someembodiments, the media guidance application may assign the priorityvalues to the differences based on priority values corresponding to thedifferences received from the user. For example, the user may input, viaa suitable interface, that the SD-HD difference should be assignedpriority value 9 and HD-4K difference should be assigned priority value10.

The media guidance application may remove differences that have apriority value lower than a threshold priority value from the databaseof pre-defined differences for which storing should be performed. Forexample, the media guidance application may retrieve the thresholdpriority value from a data structure (e.g., parameter threshold valuesdata structure) and use a query function to determine which differenceshave associated priorities less than the threshold priority value.Manners in which the media guidance application may perform this querydiscussed previously are applicable here. For example, the mediaguidance application may determine that the threshold priority value is5 and remove the French sub-titles-English sub-titles differences, whichhas a priority of 1, from the database of pre-defined differences.

The media guidance application may refrain from storing the media assetin response to determining that the difference is not included in thedatabase of pre-defined differences for which storing should beperformed. For example, the media guidance application may receive arequest to store media asset “How I Met Your Mother, Series Finale” withcharacteristics SD and French sub-titles. The media guidance applicationmay determine that the only difference between the requested version of“How I Met Your Mother, Series Finale” and the previously recordedversion is a difference in language of sub-titles (i.e., Spanishsub-titles-French sub-titles), which is not included in the database ofpre-defined differences for which storing should be performed. In thiscase, the media guidance application may refrain from recording themedia asset “How I Met Your Mother, Series Finale” with characteristicsSD and French sub-titles.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may, further inresponse to determining that the difference is not included in thedatabase of pre-defined differences, generate for display informationabout the version of the media asset that was previously stored alongwith a user selectable option to perform an action related to theversion of the media asset that was previously stored. In the someembodiments, the user selectable option to perform an action related tothe version of the media asset that was previously stored may be anoption to override the decision to refrain from storing the requestedmedia asset. In some embodiments, the user selectable option to performan action related to the version of the media asset that was previouslystored may be an option to transfer the version of the media asset thatwas previously stored from a first user equipment to a second userequipment. For example, upon refraining from recording media asset “HowI Met Your Mother, Series Finale” with characteristics SD and Frenchsubtitles, the media guidance application may generate for display aprompt such as “A version of How I Met Your Mother, Series Finale waspreviously recorded” along with information about characteristics of thepreviously stored version (e.g., SD, actual ending, Spanish sub-titles).Additionally, the media guidance application may generate for display anotification that the requested media asset will not be stored (e.g.,The requested media asset “How I Met Your Mother, Series Finale” willnot be recorded). In some embodiments, media guidance application maygenerate for display a selectable option such as “override and storerequested version” to receive from the user an indication that the mediaasset should be stored in spite of the existence of a previously storedversion. Additionally or alternatively, the media guidance applicationmay generate for display a selectable option such as “transfer previousversion to a different device.” In some instances, the media guidanceapplication may generate for display the “transfer previous version to adifferent device” option upon determining that request to store was madeon a different user equipment than the user equipment on which thepreviously stored version is stored.

The media guidance application may receive a selection of the userselectable option to perform the action related to the version of themedia asset. The media guidance application may, upon receiving theselection, perform the action related to the version of the media asset.For example, the media guidance application receives a user selection ofthe “override and store requested version” option and in response,stores the media asset “How I Met Your Mother, Series Finale” withcharacteristics SD and French subtitles.

The media guidance application may, in response to determining that thedifference is included in the database of pre-defined differences forwhich storing should be performed, store the media asset. For example,the media guidance application may receive a request to burn media asset“How I Met Your Mother, Series Finale” with characteristics 4K andalternative ending on to a BLU-RAY disc. The media guidance applicationmay determine that the differences between the requested version of “HowI Met Your Mother, Series Finale” and the previously stored version area difference in resolution (i.e., SD-4K) and a difference in content(i.e., actual ending-alternative ending). The media guidance applicationmay, upon determining that the difference in resolution (i.e., SD-4K) isincluded in the database of pre-defined differences for which storingshould be performed, burn the media asset “How I Met Your Mother, SeriesFinale” with characteristics 4K and alternative ending on to a BLU-RAYdisc.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may, prior tostoring the media asset, identify a user equipment on which the mediaasset is to be stored. The media guidance application may determinewhether available storage capacity on the user equipment is less than athreshold storage capacity. The media guidance application may, inresponse to determining that the available storage capacity on the userequipment is less than the threshold storage capacity, determine whetherthe version of the media asset that was previously stored is also storedon the user equipment. The media guidance application may, in responseto determining that the version of the media asset that was previouslystored is also stored on the user equipment, free up storage capacityfor storing the media asset by deleting the version of the media assetthat was previously stored. Subsequent to freeing up storage capacity,the media guidance application may store the media asset on the userequipment.

For example, the media guidance application may determine that the mediaasset “How I Met Your Mother, Series Finale” is to be downloaded toTom's cell phone and the cell phone's available storage capacity is lessthan the threshold capacity. Manners in which the media guidanceapplication may perform this determination discussed previously areapplicable here. The media guidance application may access the memory ofthe cell phone to determine whether the version of “How I Met YourMother, Series Finale” previously stored is saved on the cell phone.Alternatively, the media guidance application may determine whether thepreviously stored version of “How I Met Your Mother, Series Finale” issaved on the cell phone by accessing the user history table datastructure associated with Tom's user profile. Upon determining that thatthe previously stored version of “How I Met Your Mother, Series Finale”is saved on the cell phone, the media guidance application may deletethe previously stored version of “How I Met Your Mother, Series Finale”from the cell phone's memory to free-up storage capacity. Upon deletion,the media guidance application may download the requested media asset“How I Met Your Mother, Series Finale” to the freed-up storage capacityon the cell-phone.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may refrain fromstoring the media asset if the user equipment the media asset is to bestored on does not support the characteristic of the media asset. Themedia guidance application may, in response to determining that thedifference is included in a database of pre-defined differences forwhich storing should be performed, identify a user equipment on whichthe media asset is to be stored. For example, the media guidanceapplication may determine, in manners described previously, that arequest to record the media asset “How I Met Your Mother, Series Finale”with characteristics 4K and alternative ending on Tom's cell phone hasbeen received. The media guidance application may determine whether theuser equipment supports playback of the media asset without loss of thecharacteristic. The media guidance application may, in response todetermining that the user equipment does not support playback of themedia asset without loss of the characteristic, refrain from storing themedia asset on the user equipment. For example, the media guidanceapplication may access a data structure associated with Tom's cell phone(e.g., device properties data structure) to determine the types ofresolutions it supports. Upon determining that Tom's cell phone does notsupport 4K resolution, the media guidance application may refrain fromrecording media asset “How I Met Your Mother, Series Finale” withcharacteristics 4K and alternative ending on Tom's cell phone.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application, upon determiningthat the user equipment on the media asset is to be stored does notsupport playback of the media asset without loss of the characteristic,determines whether there is a second user equipment associated with theprofile of the user that supports playback of the media asset withoutloss of the characteristic. The media guidance application may, inresponse to determining that there is a second user equipment thatsupports playback of the media asset without loss of the characteristic,store the media asset on the second user equipment. Following from theprevious example, the media guidance application may, upon determiningthat Tom's cell phone does not support 4K resolution, access a datastructure (e.g., registered devices data structure associated with Tom'suser profile) to determine user equipment associated with Tom. The mediaguidance application may then access a data structure associated witheach of the user equipment associated with Tom to determine whether anyof the user equipment supports 4K resolution. For example, the mediaguidance application may determine that user equipment DVR associatedwith Tom supports 4K resolution. The media guidance application mayrecord media asset “How I Met Your Mother, Series Finale” withcharacteristics 4K and alternative ending on Tom's DVR. As anotherexample, the media guidance application may determine that a BLU-RAYburner is associated Tom and may instruct the BLU-RAY burner to burn themedia asset “How I Met Your Mother, Series Finale” with characteristics4K and alternative ending on to a BLU-RAY disc.

As the availability of media assets in different versions become moreand more ubiquitous, it becomes increasingly important for media storagesystems to selectively store different versions of a media asset thatwas previously stored in order to avoid having a detrimental impact onthe user experience. Conventional media storage systems do notintelligently distinguish between the different versions of a mediaasset and consequently do not have the capability to selectively storecertain requested media assets. Instead, Conventional media storagesystems are limited to determining whether a version of the requestedmedia asset was previously stored and basing the storing decision forthe requested media asset solely on the result of that determination.

Systems and methods provided herein address this issue by identifyingdifferences in characteristics between the requested media asset and theversion of the requested media asset that was previously stored andbasing the storing decision for the requested media asset on whether theidentified difference renders the media asset more preferable to theuser than the version previously requested. Consequently, the proposedsystems and methods allow for more nuanced storing decisions byselectively storing only certain requested media assets.

It should be noted that the systems, methods, apparatuses, and/oraspects described above may be applied to, or used in accordance with,other systems, methods, apparatuses, and/or aspects described in thisdisclosure.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The above and other objects and advantages of the disclosure will beapparent upon consideration of the following detailed description, takenin conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which like referencecharacters refer to like parts throughout, and in which:

FIG. 1 depicts an illustrative display that the media guidanceapplication may present upon receiving a request to store a media assetthat is preferable to version of the media asset that was previouslystored by the user, in accordance with some embodiments of thedisclosure;

FIG. 2 depicts an illustrative display that the media guidanceapplication may present upon receiving a request to store a media assetthat is less preferable than a version of the media asset that waspreviously stored by the user, in accordance with some embodiments ofthe disclosure;

FIG. 3 depicts an illustrative display that the media guidanceapplication may present upon determining that a media asset should bestored but user equipment on which the media asset should be stored doesnot support the media asset, in accordance with some embodiments of thedisclosure;

FIG. 4 shows an illustrative embodiment of a display screen that may beused to provide media guidance application listings and other mediaguidance information, in accordance with some embodiments of thedisclosure;

FIG. 5 shows another illustrative embodiment of a display screen thatmay be used to provide media guidance application listings, inaccordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 6 is a block diagram of an illustrative user equipment (UE) devicein accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 7 is a block diagram of an illustrative media system in accordancewith some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 8 is a flowchart of illustrative steps involved in selectivelystoring specific versions of previously stored media assets based ondifferences in characteristics between the specific versions and thepreviously stored media assets in accordance with some embodiments ofthe disclosure;

FIG. 9 is a flowchart of illustrative steps involved in comparing thecharacteristic associated with the version of the media asset that waspreviously stored with a corresponding characteristic associated withthe media asset in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 10 is a flowchart of illustrative steps involved in determiningwhether the difference between the media asset and the version of themedia asset that was previously stored is included in the database ofpre-defined differences for which storing should be performed inaccordance with some embodiments of the disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The described systems and methods enable selectively re-storing versionsof a media asset that are preferable to a user over versions of themedia asset that were previously stored. By doing so, these systems andmethods prevents the user from wasting storage capacity by re-storingless preferred versions of media assets. These systems and methods, uponreceiving a request to store a first version of a media from a user,determine whether a second version of the media asset was previouslystored by the user. Upon determining that a second version of the mediaasset was stored by the user, these systems and methods determinewhether the user prefers the second version to the first version. Thesystems and methods may determine which version is preferable bycomparing a characteristic associated with the first version with acorresponding characteristic associated with the second version todetermine a difference between the two versions. The systems and methodsmay then compare the determined difference in characteristic withentries in a list of pre-defined differences between the first versionand the second version for which the first version should be stored todetermine whether the user prefers the first version. The systems andmethods, in response to determining that the user prefers the firstversion to the second version, store the first version. The systems andmethods, in response to determining that the user prefers the secondversion, refrain from storing the first version.

FIG. 1 depicts an illustrative display that the media guidanceapplication may present upon receiving a request to store a media assetthat is preferable to version of the media asset that was previouslystored by the user, in accordance with some embodiments of thedisclosure. FIG. 1 depicts an illustrative display 100, which may bepresented by control circuitry that executes a media guidanceapplication on any user equipment. The functionality of user equipment,control circuitry, and the media guidance application is described infurther detail below with respect to FIGS. 4-7. Control circuitry maycause display 100 to be presented using the one or more of the processesdescribed in FIGS. 8-10.

The media guidance application may generate for display a variety ofdisplays, such as display 102, display 116 and display 144, on display100. The media guidance application may generate for display aninterface for receiving a user request to store a media asset, asdepicted in display 102. The media guidance application may generate fordisplay a media asset identifier 104 (e.g., a media asset identifier for“How I Met Your Mother, Series Finale”) along with descriptions aboutcharacteristics associated with the media asset corresponding to mediaasset identifier 104. For example, the media guidance application maygenerate for a display resolution indicator 108 (e.g., 4K) and an endingindicator 110 (e.g., alternative ending). The media guidance applicationmay also generate for display a selectable play option 112 and aselectable store option 114 for receiving a user request to perform aspecific action related to the media asset corresponding to the mediaasset identifier 104.

In some aspects, the media guidance application may receive, from auser, a request to store a media asset. For example, the media guidanceapplication may receive a request from a user to record the media assetcorresponding to media asset identifier 104 (e.g., “How I Met YourMother, Series Finale”) upon receiving a selection of the selectablestore option 114. The media guidance application may access a datastructure, associated with a profile of the user, that containsinformation about media assets that were previously stored by the userto determine whether a version of the media asset was previously storedby the user. For example, the media guidance application may access auser history table data structure associated with Tom's user profile todetermine whether a version of the media asset “How I Met Your Mother,Series Finale” was previously stored.

As referred to herein, “store” should be understood to mean any methodsor systems (e.g., recording, downloading, transferring, burning) forpreserving a media asset persistently, such that a user can access themedia asset after its original transmission. In some embodiments,storing a media asset may be performed by user equipment recording themedia asset from the content source transmitting the media asset (e.g.,recording a media asset on a DVR). In other embodiments, storing a mediaasset may be performed by downloading a copy of the media asset from aremote server via a communications network (e.g., downloading a mediaasset from content provider YouTube). In other embodiments, storing amedia asset may be performed by transferring a copy of the media assetfrom one user equipment to another (e.g., transferring a media assetfrom DVR to tablet). In some embodiments, storing a media asset may beperformed by burning the media asset on to a storage device (e.g.,burning a media asset on to a DVD). Any other manner of storing a mediaasset is within the scope of the term “store” as used herein.

The media guidance application may determine which specific datastructure containing information about media assets that were previouslystored by the user to access based on receiving an unique credentialassociated with the user (e.g., log-in information such as a string ofcharacters or bio-metric data such as finger print, retina scan, voicerecognition or another suitable bio-metric data) from the user.Alternatively, the media guidance application may receive an identifierassociated with the user equipment on which the storing request is madeand the media guidance application may determine the identity of theuser by retrieving a user credential corresponding to the userequipment. The media guidance application may then access the userhistory table data structure associated with the identified user.

The media guidance application may generate for display 116 to presentinformation about media assets that were previously stored to by theuser. The media guidance application may present, in display 116, a useridentifier 118 (e.g., user: Tom) and a table 119 (e.g., user historytable) containing information about media assets that were previouslystored. Each entry in table 119 may constitute several fields thatprovide descriptive information about a particular stored media asset.Exemplary fields include but are not limited to media asset title 120,date of event 122, user equipment associated with event 124, multiplecharacteristics (e.g., characteristic 1 126, characteristic 2 128,characteristic n 130) and event description 148. An example entry intable 119 may comprise of a media asset title value 132 (e.g.,“How I MetYour Mother, Series Finale”), a date of event value 134 (e.g., Sep. 9,2016), a device stored on value 136 (e.g., iPAD), a resolution value 138(e.g., SD) corresponding to characteristic 1 126, an ending value 140(e.g., actual ending) corresponding to characteristic 2 128, a sub-titlelanguage value 142 (e.g., Spanish sub-titles) corresponding tocharacteristic n 130 and event description value 150 corresponding toevent description 148. Although the depicted data structure containinginformation about media assets that were previously stored by the usercomprises a table, it is only an illustrative embodiment. Informationabout media assets that were previously stored can stored and presentedusing another suitable data storage structures (e.g., linked lists,arrays) without departing from the scope of this invention.

The data structure containing information about media assets that werepreviously stored by the user may contain information about media assetsstored by the user on user equipment and remote server associated withthe user. The media guidance application may determine whether a versionof the media asset was previously stored by querying the data structurethat contains information about media assets that were previously storedby the user for the media asset. The media guidance application mayretrieve an identifier for the media asset (e.g., media asset title,media asset serial code or any other suitable identifier) from metadataassociated with the media asset. Additionally or alternatively, themedia guidance application may access a database (e.g., a content rightsmanagement database) associated with the content source providing themedia asset to determine an identifier for the media asset. The mediaguidance application may query, using database management languages(e.g., SQL, JAPQL, CODASYL or another suitable language), the datastructure containing information about versions of media assets thatwere previously stored for media assets that are associated with theidentifier for the media asset. For example, the media guidanceapplication may use the media asset identifier 104 (e.g., “How I MetYour Mother, Series Finale”) and SQL SELECT command to query table 119associated with the profile of the user to determine whether a versionof the media asset corresponding to media asset identifier 104 waspreviously recorded by the user.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may access a datastructure containing information about previously stored (e.g.,recorded, burned, downloaded, transferred) media assets that isimplemented on a cloud server. The data structure may containinformation about media assets stored on multiple user equipmentassociated with the user. For example, table 119 associated with theprofile of the user (e.g., Tom's user profile) may be implemented on acloud server and contain information about media assets stored on userequipment (e.g., DVR, tablet, and cell phone) associated with the user.In alternative embodiments, the media guidance application may access adata structure, containing information about previously stored mediaassets, that is implemented on a user equipment and contains informationabout media assets stored on multiple user equipment associated with theuser. For example, the media guidance application may access table 119associated with Tom's user profile that is implemented on user equipmentDVR and contains information about media assets stored on DVR, tablet,and cell phone.

In alternative embodiments, the media guidance application may access adata structure containing information about previously stored mediaassets that is implemented locally on a user equipment and containsinformation about media assets stored only on that user equipment. Forexample, the media guidance application may access table 119, associatedwith Tom's user profile, that is implemented on a DVR associated withTom and contains information about only media assets recorded on theDVR.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may identifymultiple user equipment associated with the profile of the user. Forexample, the media guidance application may access a registered devicesdata structure associated with Tom's user profile, located at any of thestorage locations described in further detail below with respect to FIG.6-7, to determine that user equipment DVR, tablet, and cell phone areassociated with the user Tom. The media guidance application may receivedata about media assets that were previously stored by the user on eachof the multiple user equipment. As referred to herein, a media assetstored on a user equipment should be understood to mean that the mediaasset is stored on a storage component that is accessible to the userequipment. The storage component could be part of the user equipmentitself or a remote server. The remote server can be accessed by all ofthe user equipment associated with the user. In some embodiments, themedia guidance application may receive data about media assets that werepreviously stored by the user directly on a remote server. In someembodiments, the media guidance application may periodically query eachof the user equipment associated with the profile of the user forinformation about media assets stored by the user equipment.Additionally or alternatively, the media guidance application mayautomatically receive information about media assets stored each time astoring operation is initiated on any of the multiple user equipmentassociated with the profile of the user.

The media guidance application may store, in the data structureassociated with the profile of the user that contains information aboutthe media assets that were previously stored by the user, the data. Forexample, the media guidance application may receive a notification thatmedia asset “How I Met Your Mother, Series Finale” with characteristicsSD, actual ending, and Spanish sub-titles was recorded on a tablet(e.g., iPAD) on Sep. 9, 2016. The media guidance application may savethis information as an entry in table 119 associated with the profile ofthe user. The media guidance application may determine whether a versionof the media asset was previously stored by accessing the data stored inthe data structure associated with the profile of the user. For example,upon receiving a request to record the media asset corresponding tomedia asset identifier 104 (e.g., “How I Met Your Mother, SeriesFinale”), via user selection of selectable store option 114, the mediaguidance application may retrieve the entry associated with media assettitle value 132 and determine that a version of the media assetcorresponding to media asset identifier 104 was previously recorded bythe user.

The media guidance application may, in response to determining that aversion of the media asset was previously stored by the user, determinea characteristic associated with the version of the media asset that waspreviously stored. The characteristic can be but is not limited toprogram content (e.g., director's cut, inclusion of commercial,promotional content related to media asset, alternative ending),language options (e.g., language of sub-titles, language of dubbing,voice narration of content), audio support (e.g., Dolby Digital EX,Dolby Digital Surround EX, Dolby TrueHD), resolution (e.g., SD, HD, 4K),content rating (PG-13, R, U). The media guidance application may use ametadata extraction tool to parse metadata associated with the versionof the media asset that was previously stored and extract thecharacteristic. Additionally or alternatively, the media guidanceapplication may query the data structure containing information aboutmedia assets that were previously stored for a value associated with afield corresponding to the characteristic. For example, the mediaguidance application may query table 119 associated with the profile ofthe user for the value corresponding to the resolution characteristicassociated with the previously stored version of the media assetcorresponding to media asset identifier 104. The media guidanceapplication may determine the characteristic to be resolution value 138(e.g., SD).

The media guidance application may compare the characteristic associatedwith the version of the media asset that was previously stored with acorresponding characteristic associated with the media asset to identifya difference between the characteristic associated with the version ofthe media asset that was previously stored and the correspondingcharacteristic associated with the media asset. For example, the mediaguidance application may determine that the corresponding resolutioncharacteristic associated with the media asset corresponding to mediaasset identifier 104 is resolution indicator 108. The media guidanceapplication may use a Boolean comparison operation to determine if thecharacteristic associated with the version of the media asset that waspreviously recorded and the corresponding characteristic associated withthe media asset are identical. Upon receiving a “identical=false” resultfrom the comparison operation, the media guidance application maydetermine that there is a difference between the characteristicassociated with the version of the media asset that was previouslystored and the corresponding characteristic associated with the mediaasset. For example, the media guidance application may determine thedifference in characteristic between the requested and previously storedversion of “How I Met Your Mother, Series Finale” is that the former has4K resolution whereas the latter has SD resolution. The media guidanceapplication may encapsulate the difference in a suitable format. As anon-limiting example, the media guidance application may encapsulate thedifference by appending the characteristic associated with the versionof the media asset that was previously stored to the correspondingcharacteristic associated with the media asset with a separatorindicator in between (e.g., dash, comma, space or other suitableindicator). In this case, the media guidance application may determinethe difference to be SD-4K (i.e., characteristic associated with thepreviously stored version-corresponding characteristic associated withthe requested media asset).

The media guidance application may determine whether the difference isincluded in a database of pre-defined differences for which storingshould be performed. For example, the media guidance application mayquery a database of pre-defined differences for which storing should beperformed, located at any of the storage locations described in furtherdetail below with respect to FIG. 6-7, for the difference SD-4K. Mannersin which the media guidance application may perform this query discussedpreviously are applicable here. In some embodiments, the database ofpre-defined differences for which storing should be performed may beassociated with the profile of the user. In some embodiments, the mediaguidance application may receive user selection of differences to beincluded in the database of pre-defined differences for which storingshould be performed. In alternative embodiments, individual preferencesfor pre-defined differences may not be maintained and the database ofpre-defined differences may contain default values for all users.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may dynamicallyupdate the database of pre-defined differences for which storing shouldbe performed based on a user's media consumption habits. The mediaguidance application may monitor media consumption habits of the user.The media guidance application may determine, based on the user's mediaconsumption habits, versions of media assets that are most preferred bythe user. For example, the database of pre-defined differences for whichstoring should be performed may be associated with the user Tom. Themedia guidance application may monitor media assets viewed by Tom andtrack Tom's interactions with these various media assets. The mediaguidance application may extrapolate, from the data about Tom's mediaconsumption habits (e.g., genre of media assets watched,fast-forwarding, rewinding, re-watching trends and other suitable data),that Tom prefers to watch media assets in the highest resolutionavailable. The media guidance application may also determine that Tomnever watches media assets with sub-titles and consequently, language ofsub-titles is of little importance to Tom.

The media guidance application may then determine, based on versions ofmedia assets that are most preferred by the user, differences for whichstoring should be performed. The media guidance application may storethe differences in the database of pre-defined differences for whichstoring should be performed. For example, the media guidance applicationmay determine that differences corresponding to the requested mediaasset having a higher resolution than the version that was previouslystored should be included in the database of pre-defined differences forwhich storing should be performed. For example, the media guidanceapplication may determine SD-HD, HD-4K and SD-4K as differences forwhich storing should be performed and save these differences in thedatabase of pre-defined differences for which storing should beperformed.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may dynamicallyupdate the database of pre-defined differences for which storing shouldbe performed based on available storage capacity on a user equipment onwhich the media asset is to be stored. In some embodiments, the mediaguidance application may dynamically update the database of pre-defineddifferences for which storing should be performed based on availablestorage capacity on a remote server on which the media asset is to bestored. The media guidance application may determine the user equipmenton which the media asset is to be stored. The media guidance applicationmay determine whether available storage capacity on the user equipmentis less than a threshold storage capacity. For example, the mediaguidance application may determine, based on a user equipment identifierreceived with the store request, that the media asset corresponding tomedia asset identifier 104 is to be downloaded on the cell phone. Themedia guidance application may access a data structure associated thecell phone (e.g., device properties data structure) to determine thecell phone's available storage capacity. The media guidance applicationmay access another data structure (e.g., parameters threshold valuesdata structure) to determine the threshold storage capacity. Thethreshold storage capacity may be a fixed value (e.g., 100 MB) or avariable value determined based on the storage capacity required forstoring the media asset (e.g., threshold storage capacity=storagecapacity required for storing the media asset+pre-defined extra storagecapacity).

The media guidance application may, in response to determining that theavailable storage capacity on the user equipment is less than thethreshold storage capacity, assign priority values to the differencesincluded in the database of pre-defined differences for which storingshould be performed. For example, the media guidance application maydetermine that resolution is more important to the user Tom thanlanguage of sub-titles. Accordingly, the media guidance application mayassign the resolution differences higher priority than language ofsub-titles differences. For example, the media guidance application mayassign SD-HD, HD-4K and SD-4K differences priority values of 10 andFrench sub-titles-English sub-titles priority values of 1. In someembodiments, the media guidance application may assign the priorityvalues to the differences based on priority values corresponding to thedifferences received from the user. For example, the user may input, viaa suitable interface, that the SD-HD difference should be assignedpriority value 9 and HD-4K difference should be assigned priority value10.

The media guidance application may remove differences that have apriority value lower than a threshold priority value from the databaseof pre-defined differences for which storing should be performed. Forexample, the media guidance application may retrieve the thresholdpriority value from a data structure (e.g., parameter threshold valuesdata structure) and use a query function to determine which differenceshave associated priorities less than the threshold priority value.Manners in which the media guidance application may perform this querydiscussed previously are applicable here. For example, the mediaguidance application may determine that the threshold priority value is5 and remove the French sub-titles-English sub-titles differences, whichhas a priority of 1, from the database of pre-defined differences.

The media guidance application may, in response to determining that thedifference is included in the database of pre-defined differences forwhich storing should be performed, store the media asset. For example,the media guidance application may receive a request to burn media assetcorresponding to media asset identifier 104 (e.g., “How I Met YourMother, Series Finale” with characteristics 4K and alternative ending)on to a BLU-RAY disc. In this example, the media guidance applicationmay determine that the differences between the requested version of “HowI Met Your Mother, Series Finale” and the previously stored version area difference in resolution (i.e., SD-4K) and a difference in content(i.e., actual ending-alternative ending). The media guidance applicationmay, upon determining that the difference in resolution (i.e., SD-4K) isincluded in the database of pre-defined differences for which storingshould be performed, burn the media asset corresponding to media assetidentifier 104 onto a BLU-RAY disc.

The media guidance application may, upon determining that the differenceis included in the database of pre-defined differences for which storingshould be performed, generate for display display 144. The mediaguidance application may present in display 144 notification 146 thatinforms the user that the media asset corresponding to media assetidentifier 104 has been scheduled for storing (e.g., “Media asset ‘How IMet Your Mother, Series Finale’ has been scheduled for storing”).

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may, prior tostoring the media asset, identify a user equipment on which the mediaasset is to be stored. The media guidance application may determinewhether available storage capacity on the user equipment is less than athreshold storage capacity. The media guidance application may, inresponse to determining that the available storage capacity on the userequipment is less than the threshold storage capacity, determine whetherthe version of the media asset that was previously stored is also storedon the user equipment. The media guidance application may, in responseto determining that the version of the media asset that was previouslystored is also stored on the user equipment, free up storage capacityfor storing the media asset by deleting the version of the media assetthat was previously stored. Subsequent to freeing up storage capacity,the media guidance application may store the media asset on the userequipment. In some embodiments, the media guidance application maysimilarly free up space on a remote server and store the media asset onthe remote server.

For example, the media guidance application may determine that the mediaasset corresponding to media asset identifier 104 (e.g., “How I Met YourMother, Series Finale”) is to be recorded on Tom's cell phone and thecell phone's available storage capacity is less than the thresholdcapacity. Manners in which the media guidance application may performthis determination discussed previously are applicable here. The mediaguidance application may access the memory of the cell phone todetermine whether the version of the media asset corresponding to mediaasset identifier 104 that was previously stored is saved on the cellphone. Alternatively, the media guidance application may determinewhether the previously stored version of the media asset correspondingto media asset identifier 104 is saved on the cell phone by accessingtable 119 associated with Tom's user profile. Upon determining that thatthe previously stored version of the media asset corresponding to mediaasset asset identifier 104 is saved on the cell phone, the mediaguidance application may delete the previously stored version of themedia asset corresponding to media asset identifier 104 from the cellphone memory to free-up storage capacity. Upon deletion, the mediaguidance application may record the requested media asset correspondingto the media asset identifier 104 to the freed-up storage capacity onthe cell-phone.

FIG. 2 depicts an illustrative display that the media guidanceapplication may present upon receiving a request to store a media assetthat is less preferable than a version of the media asset that waspreviously stored by the user, in accordance with some embodiments ofthe disclosure. FIG. 2 depicts an illustrative display 200, which may bepresented by control circuitry that executes a media guidance on anyuser equipment. The functionality of user equipment, control circuitry,and the media guidance application is described in further detail belowwith respect to FIGS. 4-7. Control circuitry may cause display 200 to bepresented using the one or more of the processes described in FIGS.8-10.

The media guidance application may generate for display an interface forreceiving a user request to store a media asset, as depicted in display202. The media guidance application may present, in display 202, mediaasset identifier 204 along with descriptions about characteristicsassociated with the media asset corresponding to media asset identifier204 (e.g., “How I Met Your Mother, Series Finale”). For example, themedia guidance application may generate for display resolution indicator208 (e.g., SD) and sub-title language indicator 210 (e.g., FrenchSub-titles). The media guidance application may also generate fordisplay selectable play option 212 and selectable store option 214 forreceiving user request to perform a specific action related to the mediaasset corresponding to the media asset identifier 204.

The media guidance application may generate for display display 216 upondetermining that the difference in characteristic between the requestedmedia asset and the version previously stored is not included in thedatabase of pre-defined differences for which storing should beperformed. The media guidance application may refrain from storing themedia asset in response to determining that the difference is notincluded in the database of pre-defined differences for which storingshould be performed. For example, the media guidance application mayreceive a request to record the media asset corresponding to media assetidentifier 204 (e.g., “How I Met Your Mother, Series Finale” withcharacteristics SD and French sub-titles). The media guidanceapplication may determine that the only difference between the mediaasset corresponding to media asset identifier 204 and the version of themedia asset previously stored is a difference that is not included inthe database of pre-defined differences for which storing should beperformed. For example, the media guidance application may determinethat the only difference between the requested version of “How I MetYour Mother, Series Finale” and the previously stored version is adifference in language of sub-titles (i.e., Spanish sub-titles-Frenchsub-titles), which is not included in the database of pre-defineddifferences for which storing should be performed. In this case, themedia guidance application may refrain from recording the media assetcorresponding to media asset identifier 204.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may, further inresponse to determining that the difference is not included in thedatabase of pre-defined differences, generate for display informationabout the version of the media asset that was previously stored alongwith a user selectable option to perform an action related to theversion of the media asset that was previously stored. In the someembodiments, the user selectable option to perform an action related tothe version of the media asset that was previously stored may be anoption to override the decision to refrain from storing the requestedmedia asset. In some embodiments, the user selectable option to performan action related to the version of the media asset that was previouslystored may be an option to transfer the version of the media asset thatwas previously stored from a first user equipment to a second userequipment. For example, upon refraining from recording media assetcorresponding to media asset identifier 204, the media guidanceapplication may generate for display notification 218 (e.g., “A versionof How I Met Your Mother, Series Finale was previously stored”) toinform the user that another version of the media asset was previouslyrecorded. Additionally, the media guidance application may generate fordisplay notification 220 to provide information about the version of themedia asset that was previously stored. The media guidance applicationmay include in notification 220 resolution indicator 222 (e.g., SD),ending indicator 224 (e.g., actual ending) and sub-title languageindicator 226 (e.g., Spanish sub-titles).

Additionally or alternatively, the media guidance application maygenerate for display notification 228 to inform the user the requestedmedia asset will not be stored (e.g., “The requested media asset ‘How IMet Your Mother, Series Finale’ will not be stored”). In someembodiments, media guidance application may generate for displayselectable override option 230 (e.g., “override and store requestedversion”) to receive user input regarding whether the media asset shouldbe stored in spite of the existence of a previously stored version.Additionally or alternatively, the media guidance application maygenerate for display selectable transfer option 232 (e.g., “transferprevious version to a different device”). In some instances, the mediaguidance application may present selectable transfer option 232 upondetermining that request to store was made on a different user equipmentthan the user equipment on which the previously stored version isstored.

The media guidance application may receive a selection of the userselectable option to perform the action related to the version of themedia asset. The media guidance application may, upon receiving theselection, perform the action related to the version of the media asset.For example, the media guidance application receives a user selection ofselectable override option 230 and in response, stores the media assetcorresponding to media asset identifier 204.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may receive arequest to burn the media asset corresponding to media asset identifier204 to a storage device (e.g., CD, DVD, BLU-RAY discs and other suitablestorage devices). The media guidance application may access table 119 todetermine whether a version of the media asset corresponding to mediaasset identifier 204 was previously stored. Upon determining that aversion of the media asset corresponding to media asset identifier 204was previously stored, the media guidance application may access adatabase of pre-defined differences for which storing should beperformed to determine whether the media asset corresponding to mediaasset identifier 204 should be burned to the requested storage device.

As an illustrative example, the media guidance application may determinethat the version previously burned is more preferable to the user thanthe media asset corresponding to media asset identifier 204. In thiscase, the media guidance application may display a notification toinform the user of the existence of the version of the media assetcorresponding to media asset identifier 204 that was previously burned.The media guidance application may include in the notification detailsabout date the burning operation was performed, storage device to whichthe version was burned and details about the version burned. Forexample, the media guidance application may display a notification suchas “A version of ‘How I Met Your Mother, Series Finale’ was previouslyburned on Sep. 9, 2016 on DVD-R. Do you still want to burn the requested‘How I Met Your Mother, Series Finale’?”

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may receive arequest to burn media assets to a storage device that does not supportcharacteristics of the media asset. The media guidance application mayrefrain from burning the media asset to the requested user equipmentupon determining that the requested storage device does not support thecharacteristics of the media asset. For example, the media guidanceapplication may receive a request to burn a 4K resolution video on aDVD-R. The media guidance application may access a data structure (e.g.,device properties data structure) associated with the DVD-R to determinethe types of resolutions the DVD-R supports. Upon determining that theDVD-R does not support 4K resolution video, the media guidanceapplication may refrain from burning the 4K resolution video on a DVD-R.In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determine analternative storage device associated with the user that supportscharacteristics of the media asset. In some embodiments, the mediaguidance application may notify the user of the existence of thealternative storage device. For example, the media guidance applicationmay generate for display notification “DVD-R does not support 4K videos.Burn on your BLU-RAY discs instead.” In some embodiments, the mediaguidance application may automatically burn the video on the alternativestorage device associated with the user that supports characteristics ofthe media asset.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may receive arequest to view a media asset. The media guidance application maydetermine whether a more preferred version of the media asset waspreviously stored. Upon determining a more preferred version of themedia asset was previously stored, the media guidance application maygenerate for display a recommendation to the user to view the morepreferred version that was previously stored. For example, the mediaguidance application may receive a request to view the media assetcorresponding to media asset identifier 204. The media guidanceapplication may access table 119 to determine whether a version of themedia asset corresponding to media asset identifier 204 was previouslystored. Upon determining that a version of the media asset correspondingto media asset identifier 204 was previously stored, the media guidanceapplication may access a database of pre-defined differences indicatingmore preferred versions to determine whether the version of the mediaasset corresponding to media asset identifier 204 that was previouslystored is the more preferred version. Manners in which the mediaguidance application may perform this determination discussed previouslyare applicable here.

As an illustrative example, the media guidance application may receive arequest from the user to view “How I Met Your Mother, Series Finale”with SD resolution. The media guidance application may determine that“How I Met Your Mother, Series Finale” with 4K resolution was previouslystored by the user. In response, the media guidance application maygenerate for display a notification “You have previously stored ‘How IMet Your Mother, Series Finale’ with 4K resolution. Do you want to watchthe stored version instead?” In some embodiments, the media guidanceapplication may also generate for display a notification recommending auser equipment associated with the profile of the user on which to viewthe more preferred version of the media asset that was previouslyrecorded. For example, the media guidance application may generate fordisplay the notification “Viewing ‘How I Met Your Mother, Series Finale’with 4K resolution on the 4K TV is recommended.” In some embodiments,the media guidance application may generate for display therecommendation for which user equipment to view the he more preferredversion of the media asset that was previously recorded based ondetermining that user equipment on which the user has requested to viewthe media asset does not support playback of the media asset withoutloss of characteristics.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may includeinformation about versions of media assets that were previously viewedby the user in table 119. For example, the media guidance applicationmay detect that a user viewed a version of media asset “Total Recall”with 4K resolution on 4K TV on Sep. 11, 2016 and save this as a recordin table 119. The media guidance application may, upon receiving arequest to view a media asset, access table 119 to determine whether aversion of the media asset was previously viewed. The media guidanceapplication may provide recommendations based on characteristicsassociated with the version of the media asset previously viewed. Fromthe previous example, the media guidance application may receive, at alater point in time, a request to view “Total Recall” with SDresolution. The media guidance application may generate for display anotification such as “You have previously viewed ‘Total Recall’ with 4Kresolution. Do you want to view again?”

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determinewhether the user prefers the version of the media asset previouslyviewed more than the requested version of the media asset. Manners inwhich the media guidance application may perform this determinationdiscussed previously is applicable here. In some embodiments, the mediaguidance application may generate for display the notification informingthe user about the version of the media asset previously viewed inresponse to determining that the user prefers the version of the mediaasset that was previously viewed. In some embodiments, the mediaguidance application may receive a request to a view a media asset thatwas previously viewed and provide a recommendation for a user equipmenton which to view the media asset on. For example, the media guidanceapplication may receive a request to view “Total Recall” with 4Kresolution on a tablet. The media guidance application may determine,from table 119, that “Total Recall” with SD resolution was previouslyviewed on a cell phone. In this case, the media guidance application mayprovide the recommendation to view the requested media asset on 4Ktelevision (e.g., “You have previously viewed ‘Total Recall’ SD versionon a cell phone. Requested version of ‘Total Recall’ has 4K resolution.Watching on your 4K TV is recommended.”).

FIG. 3 depicts an illustrative display that the media guidanceapplication may present upon determining that a media asset should bestored but user equipment on which the media asset should be stored doesnot support the media asset, in accordance with some embodiments of thedisclosure. FIG. 3 depicts an illustrative display 300, which may bepresented by control circuitry that executes a media guidance on a userequipment. The functionality of user equipment, control circuitry, andthe media guidance application is described in further detail below withrespect to FIGS. 4-7. Control circuitry may cause display 300 to bepresented using the one or more of the processes described in FIGS.8-10.

The media guidance application may generate for display, upondetermining that the user equipment the media asset is to be stored ondoes not support the characteristic of the media asset, display 300. Themedia guidance application may, in response to determining that thedifference is included in a database of pre-defined differences forwhich storing should be performed, identify a user equipment on whichthe media asset is to be stored. For example, the media guidanceapplication may determine, in manners described previously, that arequest to record the media asset on user equipment 304 (e.g., cellphone) has been received. As an example, the media asset may be “How IMet Your Mother, Series Finale” with characteristics 4K and alternativeending. The media guidance application may generate for display prompt302 to inform the user that the request has been received. The mediaguidance application may determine whether the user equipment supportsplayback of the media asset without loss of the characteristic. Themedia guidance application may, in response to determining that the userequipment does not support playback of the media asset without loss ofthe characteristic, refrain from storing the media asset on the userequipment.

For example, the media guidance application may access a data structure(e.g., device properties data structure) associated with user equipment304 to determine the types of resolutions it supports. Upon determiningthat user equipment 304 does not support the 4K resolution, the mediaguidance application may refrain from storing media asset on userequipment 304. The media guidance application may display notification306 to inform the user that the user equipment does not support therequested version of the media asset (e.g., “Your cell phone does notsupport 4K videos”). The media guidance application may also generatefor display notification 308 to inform the user that a storage operationwas not performed (e.g., “The requested version of ‘How I Met YourMother, Series Finale’ will not be stored”).

In some embodiments, the media guidance application, upon determiningthat the user equipment on the media asset is to be stored does notsupport playback of the media asset without loss of the characteristic,determines whether there is a second user equipment associated with theprofile of the user that supports playback of the media asset withoutloss of the characteristic. The media guidance application may, inresponse to determining that there is a second user equipment thatsupports playback of the media asset without loss of the characteristic,store the media asset on the second user equipment. In alternativeembodiments, the media guidance application may store the media asset ona remote server that the second user equipment has access to.

Following from the previous example, the media guidance application may,upon determining that user equipment 304 does not support 4K resolution,access a data structure (e.g., registered devices data structureassociated with Tom's user profile) to determine other user equipmentassociated with Tom. The media guidance application may then access adata structure associated with each of the user equipment associatedwith Tom to determine whether any of the user equipment supports 4Kresolution. For example, the media guidance application may determinethat user equipment 312 (e.g., DVR) associated with user supports 4Kresolution. The media guidance application may display notification 310(“Your DVR supports 4K videos”) informing the user of the availabilityof another device that supports the requested media asset.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may generate fordisplay user selectable store option 314 (e.g., Store on DVR) to receiveuser input regarding whether to store the requested media asset on theother device that supports the requested media asset. Upon receivinguser selection of selectable store option 314, the media guidanceapplication may store media asset on user equipment 312. In someembodiments, upon receiving user selection of selectable store option314, the media guidance application may store media asset on a remoteserver that is accessible to user equipment 312. For example, the mediaguidance application may determine that the user's 4K televisionsupports 4K resolution. In this case, the media guidance application maystore the media asset on a cloud DVR that is associated with the 4Ktelevision.

The amount of content available to users in any given content deliverysystem can be substantial. Consequently, many users desire a form ofmedia guidance through an interface that allows users to efficientlynavigate content selections and easily identify content that they maydesire. An application that provides such guidance is referred to hereinas an interactive media guidance application or, sometimes, a mediaguidance application or a guidance application.

Interactive media guidance applications may take various forms dependingon the content for which they provide guidance. One typical type ofmedia guidance application is an interactive television program guide.Interactive television program guides (sometimes referred to aselectronic program guides) are well-known guidance applications that,among other things, allow users to navigate among and locate many typesof content or media assets. Interactive media guidance applications maygenerate graphical user interface screens that enable a user to navigateamong, locate and select content. As referred to herein, the terms“media asset” and “content” should be understood to mean anelectronically consumable user asset, such as television programming, aswell as pay-per-view programs, on-demand programs (as in video-on-demand(VOD) systems), Internet content (e.g., streaming content, downloadablecontent, Webcasts, etc.), video clips, audio, content information,pictures, rotating images, documents, playlists, websites, articles,books, electronic books, blogs, advertisements, chat sessions, socialmedia, applications, games, and/or any other media or multimedia and/orcombination of the same. Guidance applications also allow users tonavigate among and locate content. As referred to herein, the term“multimedia” should be understood to mean content that utilizes at leasttwo different content forms described above, for example, text, audio,images, video, or interactivity content forms. Content may be stored,played, displayed or accessed by user equipment devices, but can also bepart of a live performance.

The media guidance application and/or any instructions for performingany of the embodiments discussed herein may be encoded on computerreadable media. Computer readable media includes any media capable ofstoring data. The computer readable media may be transitory, including,but not limited to, propagating electrical or electromagnetic signals,or may be non-transitory including, but not limited to, volatile andnon-volatile computer memory or storage devices such as a hard disk,floppy disk, USB drive, DVD, CD, media cards, register memory, processorcaches, Random Access Memory (“RAM”), etc.

With the advent of the Internet, mobile computing, and high-speedwireless networks, users are accessing media on user equipment deviceson which they traditionally did not. As referred to herein, the phrase“user equipment device,” “user equipment,” “user device,” “electronicdevice,” “electronic equipment,” “media equipment device,” or “mediadevice” should be understood to mean any device for accessing thecontent described above, such as a television, a Smart TV, a set-topbox, an integrated receiver decoder (IRD) for handling satellitetelevision, a digital storage device, a digital media receiver (DMR), adigital media adapter (DMA), a streaming media device, a DVD player, aDVD recorder, a connected DVD, a local media server, a BLU-RAY player, aBLU-RAY recorder, a personal computer (PC), a laptop computer, a tabletcomputer, a WebTV box, a personal computer television (PC/TV), a PCmedia server, a PC media center, a hand-held computer, a stationarytelephone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a mobile telephone, aportable video player, a portable music player, a portable gamingmachine, a smart phone, or any other television equipment, computingequipment, or wireless device, and/or combination of the same. In someembodiments, the user equipment device may have a front facing screenand a rear facing screen, multiple front screens, or multiple angledscreens. In some embodiments, the user equipment device may have a frontfacing camera and/or a rear facing camera. On these user equipmentdevices, users may be able to navigate among and locate the same contentavailable through a television. Consequently, media guidance may beavailable on these devices, as well. The guidance provided may be forcontent available only through a television, for content available onlythrough one or more of other types of user equipment devices, or forcontent available both through a television and one or more of the othertypes of user equipment devices. The media guidance applications may beprovided as on-line applications (i.e., provided on a web-site), or asstand-alone applications or clients on user equipment devices. Variousdevices and platforms that may implement media guidance applications aredescribed in more detail below.

One of the functions of the media guidance application is to providemedia guidance data to users. As referred to herein, the phrase “mediaguidance data” or “guidance data” should be understood to mean any datarelated to content or data used in operating the guidance application.For example, the guidance data may include program information, guidanceapplication settings, user preferences, user profile information, medialistings, media-related information (e.g., broadcast times, broadcastchannels, titles, descriptions, ratings information (e.g., parentalcontrol ratings, critic's ratings, etc.), genre or category information,actor information, logo data for broadcasters' or providers' logos,etc.), media format (e.g., standard definition, high definition, 3D,etc.), advertisement information (e.g., text, images, media clips,etc.), on-demand information, blogs, websites, and any other type ofguidance data that is helpful for a user to navigate among and locatedesired content selections.

FIGS. 4-5 show illustrative display screens that may be used to providemedia guidance data. The display screens shown in FIGS. 4-5 may beimplemented on any suitable user equipment device or platform. While thedisplays of FIGS. 4-5 are illustrated as full screen displays, they mayalso be fully or partially overlaid over content being displayed. A usermay indicate a desire to access content information by selecting aselectable option provided in a display screen (e.g., a menu option, alistings option, an icon, a hyperlink, etc.) or pressing a dedicatedbutton (e.g., a GUIDE button) on a remote control or other user inputinterface or device. In response to the user's indication, the mediaguidance application may provide a display screen with media guidancedata organized in one of several ways, such as by time and channel in agrid, by time, by channel, by source, by content type, by category(e.g., movies, sports, news, children, or other categories ofprogramming), or other predefined, user-defined, or other organizationcriteria.

FIG. 4 shows illustrative grid of a program listings display 400arranged by time and channel that also enables access to different typesof content in a single display. Display 400 may include grid 402 with:(1) a column of channel/content type identifiers 404, where eachchannel/content type identifier (which is a cell in the column)identifies a different channel or content type available; and (2) a rowof time identifiers 406, where each time identifier (which is a cell inthe row) identifies a time block of programming. Grid 402 also includescells of program listings, such as program listing 408, where eachlisting provides the title of the program provided on the listing'sassociated channel and time. With a user input device, a user can selectprogram listings by moving highlight region 410. Information relating tothe program listing selected by highlight region 410 may be provided inprogram information region 412. Region 412 may include, for example, theprogram title, the program description, the time the program is provided(if applicable), the channel the program is on (if applicable), theprogram's rating, and other desired information.

In addition to providing access to linear programming (e.g., contentthat is scheduled to be transmitted to a plurality of user equipmentdevices at a predetermined time and is provided according to aschedule), the media guidance application also provides access tonon-linear programming (e.g., content accessible to a user equipmentdevice at any time and is not provided according to a schedule).Non-linear programming may include content from different contentsources including on-demand content (e.g., VOD), Internet content (e.g.,streaming media, downloadable media, etc.), locally stored content(e.g., content stored on any user equipment device described above orother storage device), or other time-independent content. On-demandcontent may include movies or any other content provided by a particularcontent provider (e.g., HBO On Demand providing “The Sopranos” and “CurbYour Enthusiasm”). HBO ON DEMAND is a service mark owned by Time WarnerCompany L.P. et al. and THE SOPRANOS and CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM aretrademarks owned by the Home Box Office, Inc. Internet content mayinclude web events, such as a chat session or Webcast, or contentavailable on-demand as streaming content or downloadable content throughan Internet web site or other Internet access (e.g. FTP).

Grid 402 may provide media guidance data for non-linear programmingincluding on-demand listing 414, recorded content listing 416, andInternet content listing 418. A display combining media guidance datafor content from different types of content sources is sometimesreferred to as a “mixed-media” display. Various permutations of thetypes of media guidance data that may be displayed that are differentthan display 400 may be based on user selection or guidance applicationdefinition (e.g., a display of only recorded and broadcast listings,only on-demand and broadcast listings, etc.). As illustrated, listings414, 416, and 418 are shown as spanning the entire time block displayedin grid 402 to indicate that selection of these listings may provideaccess to a display dedicated to on-demand listings, recorded listings,or Internet listings, respectively. In some embodiments, listings forthese content types may be included directly in grid 402. Additionalmedia guidance data may be displayed in response to the user selectingone of the navigational icons 420. (Pressing an arrow key on a userinput device may affect the display in a similar manner as selectingnavigational icons 420.)

Display 400 may also include video region 422, advertisement 424, andoptions region 426. Video region 422 may allow the user to view and/orpreview programs that are currently available, will be available, orwere available to the user. The content of video region 422 maycorrespond to, or be independent from, one of the listings displayed ingrid 402. Grid displays including a video region are sometimes referredto as picture-in-guide (PIG) displays. PIG displays and theirfunctionalities are described in greater detail in Satterfield et al.U.S. Pat. No. 6,564,378, issued May 13, 2003 and Yuen et al. U.S. Pat.No. 6,239,794, issued May 29, 2001, which are hereby incorporated byreference herein in their entireties. PIG displays may be included inother media guidance application display screens of the embodimentsdescribed herein.

Advertisement 424 may provide an advertisement for content that,depending on a viewer's access rights (e.g., for subscriptionprogramming), is currently available for viewing, will be available forviewing in the future, or may never become available for viewing, andmay correspond to or be unrelated to one or more of the content listingsin grid 402. Advertisement 424 may also be for products or servicesrelated or unrelated to the content displayed in grid 402. Advertisement424 may be selectable and provide further information about content,provide information about a product or a service, enable purchasing ofcontent, a product, or a service, provide content relating to theadvertisement, etc. Advertisement 424 may be targeted based on a user'sprofile/preferences, monitored user activity, the type of displayprovided, or on other suitable targeted advertisement bases.

While advertisement 424 is shown as rectangular or banner shaped,advertisements may be provided in any suitable size, shape, and locationin a guidance application display. For example, advertisement 424 may beprovided as a rectangular shape that is horizontally adjacent to grid402. This is sometimes referred to as a panel advertisement. Inaddition, advertisements may be overlaid over content or a guidanceapplication display or embedded within a display. Advertisements mayalso include text, images, rotating images, video clips, or other typesof content described above. Advertisements may be stored in a userequipment device having a guidance application, in a database connectedto the user equipment, in a remote location (including streaming mediaservers), or on other storage means, or a combination of theselocations. Providing advertisements in a media guidance application isdiscussed in greater detail in, for example, Knudson et al., U.S. PatentApplication Publication No. 2003/0110499, filed Jan. 17, 2003; Ward, IIIet al. U.S. Pat. No. 6,756,997, issued Jun. 29, 2004; and Schein et al.U.S. Pat. No. 6,388,714, issued May 14, 2002, which are herebyincorporated by reference herein in their entireties. It will beappreciated that advertisements may be included in other media guidanceapplication display screens of the embodiments described herein.

Options region 426 may allow the user to access different types ofcontent, media guidance application displays, and/or media guidanceapplication features. Options region 426 may be part of display 400 (andother display screens described herein), or may be invoked by a user byselecting an on-screen option or pressing a dedicated or assignablebutton on a user input device. The selectable options within optionsregion 426 may concern features related to program listings in grid 402or may include options available from a main menu display. Featuresrelated to program listings may include searching for other air times orways of receiving a program, recording a program, enabling seriesrecording of a program, setting program and/or channel as a favorite,purchasing a program, or other features. Options available from a mainmenu display may include search options, VOD options, parental controloptions, Internet options, cloud-based options, device synchronizationoptions, second screen device options, options to access various typesof media guidance data displays, options to subscribe to a premiumservice, options to edit a user's profile, options to access a browseoverlay, or other options.

The media guidance application may be personalized based on a user'spreferences. A personalized media guidance application allows a user tocustomize displays and features to create a personalized “experience”with the media guidance application. This personalized experience may becreated by allowing a user to input these customizations and/or by themedia guidance application monitoring user activity to determine varioususer preferences. Users may access their personalized guidanceapplication by logging in or otherwise identifying themselves to theguidance application. Customization of the media guidance applicationmay be made in accordance with a user profile. The customizations mayinclude varying presentation schemes (e.g., color scheme of displays,font size of text, etc.), aspects of content listings displayed (e.g.,only HDTV or only 3D programming, user-specified broadcast channelsbased on favorite channel selections, re-ordering the display ofchannels, recommended content, etc.), desired recording features (e.g.,recording or series recordings for particular users, recording quality,etc.), parental control settings, customized presentation of Internetcontent (e.g., presentation of social media content, e-mail,electronically delivered articles, etc.) and other desiredcustomizations.

The media guidance application may allow a user to provide user profileinformation or may automatically compile user profile information. Themedia guidance application may, for example, monitor the content theuser accesses and/or other interactions the user may have with theguidance application. Additionally, the media guidance application mayobtain all or part of other user profiles that are related to aparticular user (e.g., from other web sites on the Internet the useraccesses, such as www.allrovi.com, from other media guidanceapplications the user accesses, from other interactive applications theuser accesses, from another user equipment device of the user, etc.),and/or obtain information about the user from other sources that themedia guidance application may access. As a result, a user can beprovided with a unified guidance application experience across theuser's different user equipment devices. This type of user experience isdescribed in greater detail below in connection with FIG. 7. Additionalpersonalized media guidance application features are described ingreater detail in Ellis et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No.2005/0251827, filed Jul. 11, 2005, Boyer et al., U.S. Pat. No.7,165,098, issued Jan. 16, 2007, and Ellis et al., U.S. PatentApplication Publication No. 2002/0174430, filed Feb. 21, 2002, which arehereby incorporated by reference herein in their entireties.

Another display arrangement for providing media guidance is shown inFIG. 5. Video mosaic display 500 includes selectable options 502 forcontent information organized based on content type, genre, and/or otherorganization criteria. In display 500, television listings option 504 isselected, thus providing listings 506, 508, 510, and 512 as broadcastprogram listings. In display 500 the listings may provide graphicalimages including cover art, still images from the content, video clippreviews, live video from the content, or other types of content thatindicate to a user the content being described by the media guidancedata in the listing. Each of the graphical listings may also beaccompanied by text to provide further information about the contentassociated with the listing. For example, listing 508 may include morethan one portion, including media portion 514 and text portion 516.Media portion 514 and/or text portion 516 may be selectable to viewcontent in full-screen or to view information related to the contentdisplayed in media portion 514 (e.g., to view listings for the channelthat the video is displayed on).

The listings in display 500 are of different sizes (i.e., listing 506 islarger than listings 508, 510, and 512), but if desired, all thelistings may be the same size. Listings may be of different sizes orgraphically accentuated to indicate degrees of interest to the user orto emphasize certain content, as desired by the content provider orbased on user preferences. Various systems and methods for graphicallyaccentuating content listings are discussed in, for example, Yates, U.S.Patent Application Publication No. 2010/0153885, filed Nov. 12, 2009,which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

Users may access content and the media guidance application (and itsdisplay screens described above and below) from one or more of theiruser equipment devices. FIG. 6 shows a generalized embodiment ofillustrative user equipment device 600. More specific implementations ofuser equipment devices are discussed below in connection with FIG. 7.User equipment device 600 may receive content and data via input/output(hereinafter “I/O”) path 602. I/O path 602 may provide content (e.g.,broadcast programming, on-demand programming, Internet content, contentavailable over a local area network (LAN) or wide area network (WAN),and/or other content) and data to control circuitry 604, which includesprocessing circuitry 606 and storage 608. Control circuitry 604 may beused to send and receive commands, requests, and other suitable datausing I/O path 602. I/O path 602 may connect control circuitry 604 (andspecifically processing circuitry 606) to one or more communicationspaths (described below). I/O functions may be provided by one or more ofthese communications paths, but are shown as a single path in FIG. 6 toavoid overcomplicating the drawing.

Control circuitry 604 may be based on any suitable processing circuitrysuch as processing circuitry 606. As referred to herein, processingcircuitry should be understood to mean circuitry based on one or moremicroprocessors, microcontrollers, digital signal processors,programmable logic devices, field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs),application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), etc., and may includea multi-core processor (e.g., dual-core, quad-core, hexa-core, or anysuitable number of cores) or supercomputer. In some embodiments,processing circuitry may be distributed across multiple separateprocessors or processing units, for example, multiple of the same typeof processing units (e.g., two Intel Core i7 processors) or multipledifferent processors (e.g., an Intel Core i5 processor and an Intel Corei7 processor). In some embodiments, control circuitry 604 executesinstructions for a media guidance application stored in memory (i.e.,storage 608). Specifically, control circuitry 604 may be instructed bythe media guidance application to perform the functions discussed aboveand below. For example, the media guidance application may provideinstructions to control circuitry 604 to generate the media guidancedisplays. In some implementations, any action performed by controlcircuitry 604 may be based on instructions received from the mediaguidance application.

In client-server based embodiments, control circuitry 604 may includecommunications circuitry suitable for communicating with a guidanceapplication server or other networks or servers. The instructions forcarrying out the above mentioned functionality may be stored on theguidance application server. Communications circuitry may include acable modem, an integrated services digital network (ISDN) modem, adigital subscriber line (DSL) modem, a telephone modem, Ethernet card,or a wireless modem for communications with other equipment, or anyother suitable communications circuitry. Such communications may involvethe Internet or any other suitable communications networks or paths(which is described in more detail in connection with FIG. 7). Inaddition, communications circuitry may include circuitry that enablespeer-to-peer communication of user equipment devices, or communicationof user equipment devices in locations remote from each other (describedin more detail below).

Memory may be an electronic storage device provided as storage 608 thatis part of control circuitry 604. As referred to herein, the phrase“electronic storage device” or “storage device” should be understood tomean any device for storing electronic data, computer software, orfirmware, such as random-access memory, read-only memory, hard drives,optical drives, digital video disc (DVD) recorders, compact disc (CD)recorders, BLU-RAY disc (BD) recorders, BLU-RAY 3D disc recorders,digital video recorders (DVR, sometimes called a personal videorecorder, or PVR), solid state devices, quantum storage devices, gamingconsoles, gaming media, or any other suitable fixed or removable storagedevices, and/or any combination of the same. Storage 608 may be used tostore various types of content described herein as well as mediaguidance data described above. Nonvolatile memory may also be used(e.g., to launch a boot-up routine and other instructions). Cloud-basedstorage, described in relation to FIG. 7, may be used to supplementstorage 608 or instead of storage 608.

Control circuitry 604 may include video generating circuitry and tuningcircuitry, such as one or more analog tuners, one or more MPEG-2decoders or other digital decoding circuitry, high-definition tuners, orany other suitable tuning or video circuits or combinations of suchcircuits. Encoding circuitry (e.g., for converting over-the-air, analog,or digital signals to MPEG signals for storage) may also be provided.Control circuitry 604 may also include scaler circuitry for upconvertingand downconverting content into the preferred output format of the userequipment 600. Circuitry 604 may also include digital-to-analogconverter circuitry and analog-to-digital converter circuitry forconverting between digital and analog signals. The tuning and encodingcircuitry may be used by the user equipment device to receive and todisplay, to play, or to record content. The tuning and encodingcircuitry may also be used to receive guidance data. The circuitrydescribed herein, including for example, the tuning, video generating,encoding, decoding, encrypting, decrypting, scaler, and analog/digitalcircuitry, may be implemented using software running on one or moregeneral purpose or specialized processors. Multiple tuners may beprovided to handle simultaneous tuning functions (e.g., watch and recordfunctions, picture-in-picture (PIP) functions, multiple-tuner recording,etc.). If storage 608 is provided as a separate device from userequipment 600, the tuning and encoding circuitry (including multipletuners) may be associated with storage 608.

A user may send instructions to control circuitry 604 using user inputinterface 610. User input interface 610 may be any suitable userinterface, such as a remote control, mouse, trackball, keypad, keyboard,touch screen, touchpad, stylus input, joystick, voice recognitioninterface, or other user input interfaces. Display 612 may be providedas a stand-alone device or integrated with other elements of userequipment device 600. For example, display 612 may be a touchscreen ortouch-sensitive display. In such circumstances, user input interface 610may be integrated with or combined with display 612. Display 612 may beone or more of a monitor, a television, a liquid crystal display (LCD)for a mobile device, amorphous silicon display, low temperature polysilicon display, electronic ink display, electrophoretic display, activematrix display, electro-wetting display, electrofluidic display, cathoderay tube display, light-emitting diode display, electroluminescentdisplay, plasma display panel, high-performance addressing display,thin-film transistor display, organic light-emitting diode display,surface-conduction electron-emitter display (SED), laser television,carbon nanotubes, quantum dot display, interferometric modulatordisplay, or any other suitable equipment for displaying visual images.In some embodiments, display 612 may be HDTV-capable. In someembodiments, display 612 may be a 3D display, and the interactive mediaguidance application and any suitable content may be displayed in 3D. Avideo card or graphics card may generate the output to the display 612.The video card may offer various functions such as accelerated renderingof 3D scenes and 2D graphics, MPEG-2/MPEG-4 decoding, TV output, or theability to connect multiple monitors. The video card may be anyprocessing circuitry described above in relation to control circuitry604. The video card may be integrated with the control circuitry 604.Speakers 614 may be provided as integrated with other elements of userequipment device 600 or may be stand-alone units. The audio component ofvideos and other content displayed on display 612 may be played throughspeakers 614. In some embodiments, the audio may be distributed to areceiver (not shown), which processes and outputs the audio via speakers614.

The guidance application may be implemented using any suitablearchitecture. For example, it may be a stand-alone applicationwholly-implemented on user equipment device 600. In such an approach,instructions of the application are stored locally (e.g., in storage608), and data for use by the application is downloaded on a periodicbasis (e.g., from an out-of-band feed, from an Internet resource, orusing another suitable approach). Control circuitry 604 may retrieveinstructions of the application from storage 608 and process theinstructions to generate any of the displays discussed herein. Based onthe processed instructions, control circuitry 604 may determine whataction to perform when input is received from input interface 610. Forexample, movement of a cursor on a display up/down may be indicated bythe processed instructions when input interface 610 indicates that anup/down button was selected.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application is a client-serverbased application. Data for use by a thick or thin client implemented onuser equipment device 600 is retrieved on-demand by issuing requests toa server remote to the user equipment device 600. In one example of aclient-server based guidance application, control circuitry 604 runs aweb browser that interprets web pages provided by a remote server. Forexample, the remote server may store the instructions for theapplication in a storage device. The remote server may process thestored instructions using circuitry (e.g., control circuitry 604) andgenerate the displays discussed above and below. The client device mayreceive the displays generated by the remote server and may display thecontent of the displays locally on equipment device 600. This way, theprocessing of the instructions is performed remotely by the server whilethe resulting displays are provided locally on equipment device 600.Equipment device 600 may receive inputs from the user via inputinterface 610 and transmit those inputs to the remote server forprocessing and generating the corresponding displays. For example,equipment device 600 may transmit a communication to the remote serverindicating that an up/down button was selected via input interface 610.The remote server may process instructions in accordance with that inputand generate a display of the application corresponding to the input(e.g., a display that moves a cursor up/down). The generated display isthen transmitted to equipment device 600 for presentation to the user.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application is downloaded andinterpreted or otherwise run by an interpreter or virtual machine (runby control circuitry 604). In some embodiments, the guidance applicationmay be encoded in the ETV Binary Interchange Format (EBIF), received bycontrol circuitry 604 as part of a suitable feed, and interpreted by auser agent running on control circuitry 604. For example, the guidanceapplication may be an EBIF application. In some embodiments, theguidance application may be defined by a series of JAVA-based files thatare received and run by a local virtual machine or other suitablemiddleware executed by control circuitry 604. In some of suchembodiments (e.g., those employing MPEG-2 or other digital mediaencoding schemes), the guidance application may be, for example, encodedand transmitted in an MPEG-2 object carousel with the MPEG audio andvideo packets of a program.

User equipment device 600 of FIG. 6 can be implemented in system 700 ofFIG. 7 as user television equipment 702, user computer equipment 704,wireless user communications device 706, or any other type of userequipment suitable for accessing content, such as a non-portable gamingmachine. For simplicity, these devices may be referred to hereincollectively as user equipment or user equipment devices, and may besubstantially similar to user equipment devices described above. Userequipment devices, on which a media guidance application may beimplemented, may function as a standalone device or may be part of anetwork of devices. Various network configurations of devices may beimplemented and are discussed in more detail below.

A user equipment device utilizing at least some of the system featuresdescribed above in connection with FIG. 6 may not be classified solelyas user television equipment 702, user computer equipment 704, or awireless user communications device 706. For example, user televisionequipment 702 may, like some user computer equipment 704, beInternet-enabled allowing for access to Internet content, while usercomputer equipment 704 may, like some user television equipment 702,include a tuner allowing for access to television programming. The mediaguidance application may have the same layout on various different typesof user equipment or may be tailored to the display capabilities of theuser equipment. For example, on user computer equipment 704, theguidance application may be provided as a web site accessed by a webbrowser. In another example, the guidance application may be scaled downfor wireless user communications devices 706.

In system 700, there is typically more than one of each type of userequipment device but only one of each is shown in FIG. 7 to avoidovercomplicating the drawing. In addition, each user may utilize morethan one type of user equipment device and also more than one of eachtype of user equipment device.

In some embodiments, a user equipment device (e.g., user televisionequipment 702, user computer equipment 704, wireless user communicationsdevice 706) may be referred to as a “second screen device.” For example,a second screen device may supplement content presented on a first userequipment device. The content presented on the second screen device maybe any suitable content that supplements the content presented on thefirst device. In some embodiments, the second screen device provides aninterface for adjusting settings and display preferences of the firstdevice. In some embodiments, the second screen device is configured forinteracting with other second screen devices or for interacting with asocial network. The second screen device can be located in the same roomas the first device, a different room from the first device but in thesame house or building, or in a different building from the firstdevice.

The user may also set various settings to maintain consistent mediaguidance application settings across in-home devices and remote devices.Settings include those described herein, as well as channel and programfavorites, programming preferences that the guidance applicationutilizes to make programming recommendations, display preferences, andother desirable guidance settings. For example, if a user sets a channelas a favorite on, for example, the web site www.allrovi.com on theirpersonal computer at their office, the same channel would appear as afavorite on the user's in-home devices (e.g., user television equipmentand user computer equipment) as well as the user's mobile devices, ifdesired. Therefore, changes made on one user equipment device can changethe guidance experience on another user equipment device, regardless ofwhether they are the same or a different type of user equipment device.In addition, the changes made may be based on settings input by a user,as well as user activity monitored by the guidance application.

The user equipment devices may be coupled to communications network 714.Namely, user television equipment 702, user computer equipment 704, andwireless user communications device 706 are coupled to communicationsnetwork 714 via communications paths 708, 710, and 712, respectively.Communications network 714 may be one or more networks including theInternet, a mobile phone network, mobile voice or data network (e.g., a4G or LTE network), cable network, public switched telephone network, orother types of communications network or combinations of communicationsnetworks. Paths 708, 710, and 712 may separately or together include oneor more communications paths, such as, a satellite path, a fiber-opticpath, a cable path, a path that supports Internet communications (e.g.,IPTV), free-space connections (e.g., for broadcast or other wirelesssignals), or any other suitable wired or wireless communications path orcombination of such paths. Path 712 is drawn with dotted lines toindicate that in the exemplary embodiment shown in FIG. 7 it is awireless path and paths 708 and 710 are drawn as solid lines to indicatethey are wired paths (although these paths may be wireless paths, ifdesired). Communications with the user equipment devices may be providedby one or more of these communications paths, but are shown as a singlepath in FIG. 7 to avoid overcomplicating the drawing.

Although communications paths are not drawn between user equipmentdevices, these devices may communicate directly with each other viacommunication paths, such as those described above in connection withpaths 708, 710, and 712, as well as other short-range point-to-pointcommunication paths, such as USB cables, IEEE 1394 cables, wirelesspaths (e.g., Bluetooth, infrared, IEEE 802-11x, etc.), or othershort-range communication via wired or wireless paths. BLUETOOTH is acertification mark owned by Bluetooth SIG, INC. The user equipmentdevices may also communicate with each other directly through anindirect path via communications network 714.

System 700 includes content source 716 and media guidance data source718 coupled to communications network 714 via communication paths 720and 722, respectively. Paths 720 and 722 may include any of thecommunication paths described above in connection with paths 708, 710,and 712. Communications with the content source 716 and media guidancedata source 718 may be exchanged over one or more communications paths,but are shown as a single path in FIG. 7 to avoid overcomplicating thedrawing. In addition, there may be more than one of each of contentsource 716 and media guidance data source 718, but only one of each isshown in FIG. 7 to avoid overcomplicating the drawing. (The differenttypes of each of these sources are discussed below.) If desired, contentsource 716 and media guidance data source 718 may be integrated as onesource device. Although communications between sources 716 and 718 withuser equipment devices 702, 704, and 706 are shown as throughcommunications network 714, in some embodiments, sources 716 and 718 maycommunicate directly with user equipment devices 702, 704, and 706 viacommunication paths (not shown) such as those described above inconnection with paths 708, 710, and 712.

Content source 716 may include one or more types of content distributionequipment including a television distribution facility, cable systemheadend, satellite distribution facility, programming sources (e.g.,television broadcasters, such as NBC, ABC, HBO, etc.), intermediatedistribution facilities and/or servers, Internet providers, on-demandmedia servers, and other content providers. NBC is a trademark owned bythe National Broadcasting Company, Inc., ABC is a trademark owned by theAmerican Broadcasting Company, Inc., and HBO is a trademark owned by theHome Box Office, Inc. Content source 716 may be the originator ofcontent (e.g., a television broadcaster, a Webcast provider, etc.) ormay not be the originator of content (e.g., an on-demand contentprovider, an Internet provider of content of broadcast programs fordownloading, etc.). Content source 716 may include cable sources,satellite providers, on-demand providers, Internet providers,over-the-top content providers, or other providers of content. Contentsource 716 may also include a remote media server used to storedifferent types of content (including video content selected by a user),in a location remote from any of the user equipment devices. Systems andmethods for remote storage of content, and providing remotely storedcontent to user equipment are discussed in greater detail in connectionwith Ellis et al., U.S. Pat. No. 7,761,892, issued Jul. 20, 2010, whichis hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

Media guidance data source 718 may provide media guidance data, such asthe media guidance data described above. Media guidance data may beprovided to the user equipment devices using any suitable approach. Insome embodiments, the guidance application may be a stand-aloneinteractive television program guide that receives program guide datavia a data feed (e.g., a continuous feed or trickle feed). Programschedule data and other guidance data may be provided to the userequipment on a television channel sideband, using an in-band digitalsignal, using an out-of-band digital signal, or by any other suitabledata transmission technique. Program schedule data and other mediaguidance data may be provided to user equipment on multiple analog ordigital television channels.

In some embodiments, guidance data from media guidance data source 718may be provided to users' equipment using a client-server approach. Forexample, a user equipment device may pull media guidance data from aserver, or a server may push media guidance data to a user equipmentdevice. In some embodiments, a guidance application client residing onthe user's equipment may initiate sessions with source 718 to obtainguidance data when needed, e.g., when the guidance data is out of dateor when the user equipment device receives a request from the user toreceive data. Media guidance may be provided to the user equipment withany suitable frequency (e.g., continuously, daily, a user-specifiedperiod of time, a system-specified period of time, in response to arequest from user equipment, etc.). Media guidance data source 718 mayprovide user equipment devices 702, 704, and 706 the media guidanceapplication itself or software updates for the media guidanceapplication.

In some embodiments, the media guidance data may include viewer data.For example, the viewer data may include current and/or historical useractivity information (e.g., what content the user typically watches,what times of day the user watches content, whether the user interactswith a social network, at what times the user interacts with a socialnetwork to post information, what types of content the user typicallywatches (e.g., pay TV or free TV), mood, brain activity information,etc.). The media guidance data may also include subscription data. Forexample, the subscription data may identify to which sources or servicesa given user subscribes and/or to which sources or services the givenuser has previously subscribed but later terminated access (e.g.,whether the user subscribes to premium channels, whether the user hasadded a premium level of services, whether the user has increasedInternet speed). In some embodiments, the viewer data and/or thesubscription data may identify patterns of a given user for a period ofmore than one year. The media guidance data may include a model (e.g., asurvivor model) used for generating a score that indicates a likelihooda given user will terminate access to a service/source. For example, themedia guidance application may process the viewer data with thesubscription data using the model to generate a value or score thatindicates a likelihood of whether the given user will terminate accessto a particular service or source. In particular, a higher score mayindicate a higher level of confidence that the user will terminateaccess to a particular service or source. Based on the score, the mediaguidance application may generate promotions and advertisements thatentice the user to keep the particular service or source indicated bythe score as one to which the user will likely terminate access.

Media guidance applications may be, for example, stand-aloneapplications implemented on user equipment devices. For example, themedia guidance application may be implemented as software or a set ofexecutable instructions which may be stored in storage 608, and executedby control circuitry 604 of a user equipment device 600. In someembodiments, media guidance applications may be client-serverapplications where only a client application resides on the userequipment device, and server application resides on a remote server. Forexample, media guidance applications may be implemented partially as aclient application on control circuitry 604 of user equipment device 600and partially on a remote server as a server application (e.g., mediaguidance data source 718) running on control circuitry of the remoteserver. When executed by control circuitry of the remote server (such asmedia guidance data source 718), the media guidance application mayinstruct the control circuitry to generate the guidance applicationdisplays and transmit the generated displays to the user equipmentdevices. The server application may instruct the control circuitry ofthe media guidance data source 718 to transmit data for storage on theuser equipment. The client application may instruct control circuitry ofthe receiving user equipment to generate the guidance applicationdisplays.

Content and/or media guidance data delivered to user equipment devices702, 704, and 706 may be over-the-top (OTT) content. OTT contentdelivery allows Internet-enabled user devices, including any userequipment device described above, to receive content that is transferredover the Internet, including any content described above, in addition tocontent received over cable or satellite connections. OTT content isdelivered via an Internet connection provided by an Internet serviceprovider (ISP), but a third party distributes the content. The ISP maynot be responsible for the viewing abilities, copyrights, orredistribution of the content, and may only transfer IP packets providedby the OTT content provider. Examples of OTT content providers includeYOUTUBE, NETFLIX, and HULU, which provide audio and video via IPpackets. Youtube is a trademark owned by Google Inc., Netflix is atrademark owned by Netflix Inc., and Hulu is a trademark owned by Hulu,LLC. OTT content providers may additionally or alternatively providemedia guidance data described above. In addition to content and/or mediaguidance data, providers of OTT content can distribute media guidanceapplications (e.g., web-based applications or cloud-based applications),or the content can be displayed by media guidance applications stored onthe user equipment device.

Media guidance system 700 is intended to illustrate a number ofapproaches, or network configurations, by which user equipment devicesand sources of content and guidance data may communicate with each otherfor the purpose of accessing content and providing media guidance. Theembodiments described herein may be applied in any one or a subset ofthese approaches, or in a system employing other approaches fordelivering content and providing media guidance. The following fourapproaches provide specific illustrations of the generalized example ofFIG. 7.

In one approach, user equipment devices may communicate with each otherwithin a home network. User equipment devices can communicate with eachother directly via short-range point-to-point communication schemesdescribed above, via indirect paths through a hub or other similardevice provided on a home network, or via communications network 714.Each of the multiple individuals in a single home may operate differentuser equipment devices on the home network. As a result, it may bedesirable for various media guidance information or settings to becommunicated between the different user equipment devices. For example,it may be desirable for users to maintain consistent media guidanceapplication settings on different user equipment devices within a homenetwork, as described in greater detail in Ellis et al., U.S. PatentPublication No. 2005/0251827, filed Jul. 11, 2005. Different types ofuser equipment devices in a home network may also communicate with eachother to transmit content. For example, a user may transmit content fromuser computer equipment to a portable video player or portable musicplayer.

In a second approach, users may have multiple types of user equipment bywhich they access content and obtain media guidance. For example, someusers may have home networks that are accessed by in-home and mobiledevices. Users may control in-home devices via a media guidanceapplication implemented on a remote device. For example, users mayaccess an online media guidance application on a web site via a personalcomputer at their office, or a mobile device such as a PDA orweb-enabled mobile telephone. The user may set various settings (e.g.,recordings, reminders, or other settings) on the online guidanceapplication to control the user's in-home equipment. The online guidemay control the user's equipment directly, or by communicating with amedia guidance application on the user's in-home equipment. Varioussystems and methods for user equipment devices communicating, where theuser equipment devices are in locations remote from each other, isdiscussed in, for example, Ellis et al., U.S. Pat. No. 8,046,801, issuedOct. 25, 2011, which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in itsentirety.

In a third approach, users of user equipment devices inside and outsidea home can use their media guidance application to communicate directlywith content source 716 to access content. Specifically, within a home,users of user television equipment 702 and user computer equipment 704may access the media guidance application to navigate among and locatedesirable content. Users may also access the media guidance applicationoutside of the home using wireless user communications devices 706 tonavigate among and locate desirable content.

In a fourth approach, user equipment devices may operate in a cloudcomputing environment to access cloud services. In a cloud computingenvironment, various types of computing services for content sharing,storage or distribution (e.g., video sharing sites or social networkingsites) are provided by a collection of network-accessible computing andstorage resources, referred to as “the cloud.” For example, the cloudcan include a collection of server computing devices, which may belocated centrally or at distributed locations, that provide cloud-basedservices to various types of users and devices connected via a networksuch as the Internet via communications network 714. These cloudresources may include one or more content sources 716 and one or moremedia guidance data sources 718. In addition or in the alternative, theremote computing sites may include other user equipment devices, such asuser television equipment 702, user computer equipment 704, and wirelessuser communications device 706. For example, the other user equipmentdevices may provide access to a stored copy of a video or a streamedvideo. In such embodiments, user equipment devices may operate in apeer-to-peer manner without communicating with a central server.

The cloud provides access to services, such as content storage, contentsharing, or social networking services, among other examples, as well asaccess to any content described above, for user equipment devices.Services can be provided in the cloud through cloud computing serviceproviders, or through other providers of online services. For example,the cloud-based services can include a content storage service, acontent sharing site, a social networking site, or other services viawhich user-sourced content is distributed for viewing by others onconnected devices. These cloud-based services may allow a user equipmentdevice to store content to the cloud and to receive content from thecloud rather than storing content locally and accessing locally-storedcontent.

A user may use various content capture devices, such as camcorders,digital cameras with video mode, audio recorders, mobile phones, andhandheld computing devices, to record content. The user can uploadcontent to a content storage service on the cloud either directly, forexample, from user computer equipment 704 or wireless usercommunications device 706 having content capture feature. Alternatively,the user can first transfer the content to a user equipment device, suchas user computer equipment 704. The user equipment device storing thecontent uploads the content to the cloud using a data transmissionservice on communications network 714. In some embodiments, the userequipment device itself is a cloud resource, and other user equipmentdevices can access the content directly from the user equipment deviceon which the user stored the content.

Cloud resources may be accessed by a user equipment device using, forexample, a web browser, a media guidance application, a desktopapplication, a mobile application, and/or any combination of accessapplications of the same. The user equipment device may be a cloudclient that relies on cloud computing for application delivery, or theuser equipment device may have some functionality without access tocloud resources. For example, some applications running on the userequipment device may be cloud applications, i.e., applications deliveredas a service over the Internet, while other applications may be storedand run on the user equipment device. In some embodiments, a user devicemay receive content from multiple cloud resources simultaneously. Forexample, a user device can stream audio from one cloud resource whiledownloading content from a second cloud resource. Or a user device candownload content from multiple cloud resources for more efficientdownloading. In some embodiments, user equipment devices can use cloudresources for processing operations such as the processing operationsperformed by processing circuitry described in relation to FIG. 6.

As referred herein, the term “in response to” refers to initiated as aresult of. For example, a first action being performed in response to asecond action may include interstitial steps between the first actionand the second action. As referred herein, the term “directly inresponse to” refers to caused by. For example, a first action beingperformed directly in response to a second action may not includeinterstitial steps between the first action and the second action.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart of illustrative steps involved in selectivelystoring specific versions of previously stored media assets based ondifferences in characteristics between the specific versions and thepreviously stored media assets in accordance with some embodiments ofthe disclosure. Process 800 may be used to determine whether to store amedia asset based on whether the media asset has an associatedcharacteristic that renders the media asset preferable to the version ofthe media asset that was previously stored.

Process 800 begins at 802 where control circuitry 604 receives, from auser, a request to store a media asset. For example, control circuitry604 may, upon receiving a selection of the selectable store option 114via user input interface 610, receive a request from a user Tom to storethe media asset corresponding to media asset identifier 104 (e.g., “HowI Met Your Mother, Series Finale”). Process 800 continues to 804 wherecontrol circuitry 604 accesses a data structure, associated with aprofile of the user, that contains information about media assets thatwere previously stored by the user to determine whether a version of themedia asset was previously stored by the user.

Process 800 continues to 806 where control circuitry 604 determineswhether a version of the media asset previously stored. If, at 806,control circuitry 604 determines that a version of the media asset wasnot previously stored, process 800 continues onto 820. At 820, controlcircuitry 604 stores the media asset. If, at 806, control circuitry 604determines that a version of the media asset was previously stored,process 800 continues onto 808. For example, control circuitry 604 mayquery table 119 for media asset identifier 104 and retrieve the entryassociated with media asset title value 132. Upon retrieving the entry,control circuitry 604 may determine that a version of the media assetcorresponding to media asset identifier 104 was previously stored.

At 808, control circuitry 604 determines a characteristic associatedwith the version of the media asset that was previously stored. Forexample, control circuitry 604 may determine that the resolutioncharacteristic associated with the previously stored version of themedia asset “How I Met Your Mother, Series Finale” is SD. Manners inwhich control circuitry 604 may perform this determination discussedpreviously are applicable here. Process 800 continues to 810 wherecontrol circuitry 604 compares the characteristic associated with theversion of the media asset that was previously stored with acorresponding characteristic associated with the media asset to identifya difference between the characteristic associated with the version ofthe media asset that was previously stored and the correspondingcharacteristic associated with the media asset. For example, controlcircuitry 604 may determine that the corresponding resolutioncharacteristic associated with the media asset corresponding to mediaasset identifier 104 is 4K.

Process 800 continues to 812 where control circuitry 604 determines ifthere is a difference between the characteristic associated with theversion of the media asset that was previously stored and thecorresponding characteristic associated with the media asset. Forexample, Control circuitry 604 may use a Boolean comparison operation todetermine if SD and 4K are identical. If, at 812, control circuitry 604determines that there is no difference between the characteristicassociated with the version of the media asset that was previouslystored and the corresponding characteristic associated with the mediaasset, process 800 continues onto to 822 where process 800 ends. If, at812, control circuitry 604 determines that there is a difference betweenthe characteristic associated with the version of the media asset thatwas previously stored and the corresponding characteristic associatedwith the media asset, process 800 continues onto 814. For example, at812, control circuitry 604 may determine that the difference to beSD-4K.

At 814, control circuitry 604 determines whether the difference isincluded in a database of pre-defined differences for which storingshould be performed. For example, control circuitry 604 may query adatabase of pre-defined differences for which storing should beperformed, located at any of the storage locations described in furtherdetail below with respect to FIG. 6-7, for the difference SD-4K. Mannersin which control circuitry 604 may perform this query discussedpreviously are applicable here. If, at 814, control circuitry 604determines that the difference is not included in a database ofpre-defined differences for which storing should be performed, process800 continues to 816. At 816, control circuitry 604 refrains fromstoring the media asset. If, at 814, control circuitry 604 determinesthat the difference is included in a database of pre-defined differencesfor which storing should be performed, process 800 continues to 818. At818, control circuitry 604 stores the media asset. For example, controlcircuitry 604 may determine that the difference SD-4K is included in thedatabase of pre-defined differences at 814. At 818, control circuitry604 stores the media asset corresponding to media asset identifier 104.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart of illustrative steps involved in comparing thecharacteristic associated with the version of the media asset that waspreviously stored with a corresponding characteristic associated withthe media asset in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure.

Process 900 begins at 902 where control circuitry 604 begins process forcomparing the characteristic associated with the version of the mediaasset that was previously stored with a corresponding characteristicassociated with the media asset. Process 900 continues onto 904 wherecontrol circuitry 604 retrieve next characteristic associated with theversion of the media asset that was previously stored. For example, thecontrol circuitry 604 may retrieve resolution value 138 associated withthe media asset corresponding to media asset title value 132. Process900 continues onto 906 where control circuitry 604 parses metadataassociated with the media asset for corresponding characteristic. Forexample, control circuitry 604 may parse metadata associated with themedia asset corresponding to media asset identifier 104 to determine thecorresponding characteristic resolution indicator 108.

Process 900 continues onto 908 where control circuitry 604 determineswhether there is a difference between the characteristic associated withthe version of the media asset that was previously stored and thecorresponding characteristic associated with the media asset. Forexample, control circuitry 604 may determine that the difference to beSD-4K. If, at 908, control circuitry 604 determines there is adifference between the characteristic associated with the version of themedia asset that was previously stored and the correspondingcharacteristic associated with the media asset, process 900 continues onto 914. At 914, control circuitry 604 includes the difference in a listof differences between the characteristic associated with the version ofthe media asset that was previously stored and the correspondingcharacteristic associated with the media asset. For example, controlcircuitry 604 may include the difference SD-4K in the list ofdifferences between characteristics of the media asset corresponding tomedia asset title value 132 and characteristics of the media assetcorresponding to media asset identifier 104. If, at 908, controlcircuitry 604 determines there is no difference between thecharacteristic associated with the version of the media asset that waspreviously stored and the corresponding characteristic associated withthe media asset, process 900 continues on to 910.

At 910, control circuitry 604 parses metadata associated with theversion of the media asset that was previously stored to determine ifthere is another characteristic associated with the version of the mediaasset that was previously stored. Process 900 continues onto 912 wherecontrol circuitry 604 determines if there is another characteristicassociated with the version of the media asset that was previouslystored. For example, control circuitry 604 may determine that the mediaasset corresponding to media asset title value 132 also has thecharacteristic ending value 140 associated with it. If, at 912, controlcircuitry 604 determines there is another characteristic associated withthe version of the media asset that was previously stored, process 900reverts to 904. In this example, upon determining ending value 140associated with the media asset corresponding to media asset title value132, control circuitry 604 reverts to 904. If, at 912, control circuitry604 determines there is no other characteristic associated with theversion of the media asset that was previously stored, process 900continues onto 916. At 916, process 900 ends.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart of illustrative steps involved in determiningwhether the difference between the media asset and the version of themedia asset that was previously stored is included in the database ofpre-defined differences for which storing should be performed inaccordance with some embodiments of the disclosure.

Process 1000 starts at 1002 where control circuitry 604 begins processfor determining whether the difference is included in the database ofpre-defined differences for which storing should be performed. Process1000 continues to 1004 where control circuitry 604 determines availablestorage capacity on user equipment on which the media asset is to bestored. For example, control circuitry may determine that the mediaasset corresponding to media asset identifier 104 is to be stored onuser equipment 304. Process 1000 continues to 1006, where controlcircuitry 604 determines whether the available storage capacity on theuser equipment less than a threshold storage capacity. Control circuitry604 may access a data structure associated with user equipment 304(e.g., device properties data structure) to determine available storagecapacity of user equipment 304. Control circuitry 604 may access anotherdata structure (e.g., parameters threshold values data structure) todetermine the threshold storage capacity. The data structures may belocated at any of the storage locations described in further detailbelow with respect to FIG. 6-7. Control circuitry 604 may use a Booleanoperation to compare the values retrieved.

If, at 1006 control circuitry 604 determines that the available storagecapacity on the user equipment is less than the threshold storagecapacity, process 1000 continues to 1008. At 1008, control circuitry 604assigns priority values to the differences included in the database ofpre-defined differences. For example, control circuitry 604 maydetermine that resolution is more important to the user than language ofsub-titles. Accordingly, the media guidance application may assign theresolution differences higher priority than language of sub-titlesdifferences. For example, control circuitry may assign SD-HD, HD-4K andSD-4K differences priority values of 10 and French sub-titles-Englishsub-titles priority values of 1. Process 1000 continues to 1010 wherecontrol circuitry 604 removes differences that have a priority valuelower than a threshold priority value from the database of pre-defineddifferences. For example, control circuitry may determine that thethreshold priority value is 5 and remove the French sub-titles-Englishsub-titles differences, which has a priority of 1, from the database ofpre-defined differences.

From 1010, process 1000 continues to 1012. If, at 1006 control circuitry604 determines that the available storage capacity on the user equipmentis not less than the threshold storage capacity, process 1000 continuesto 1012 as well. At 10212, control circuitry 604 determines whether thedatabase of pre-defined differences has to be updated to take intoaccount the user's media consumption habits. If, at 1012 controlcircuitry 604 determines that the database of pre-defined differenceshas to be updated to take into account the user's media consumptionhabits, process 1000 continues to 1014. At 1014, control circuitry 604retrieves media consumption habits of the user.

Process 1000 continues to 1016 where control circuitry 604 determines,from the media consumption habits of the user, versions of media assetsthat are most preferred by the user and differences for which storingshould be performed. For example, control circuitry 604 may extrapolate,from the media consumption habits of the user (e.g., genre of mediaassets watched, fast-forwarding, rewinding, re-watching trends and othersuitable data), that the user prefers to watch media assets in thehighest resolution available. Control circuitry 604 may also determinethat the user never watches media assets with sub-titles andconsequently, language of sub-titles is of little importance to theuser.

Process 1000 continues to 1018 where control circuitry 604 stores thedifferences in the database of pre-defined differences for which storingshould be performed. For example, control circuitry 604 may determinethat differences corresponding to the requested media asset having ahigher resolution than the version that was previously stored should beincluded in the database of pre-defined differences for which storingshould be performed. For example, control circuitry 604 may determineSD-HD, HD-4K and SD-4K as differences for which storing should beperformed and save these differences in the database of pre-defineddifferences for which storing should be performed.

From 1018, process 1000 continues to 1020. Process 1000 also continuesto 1020 if, at 1012, control circuitry 604 determines that the databaseof pre-defined differences does not have to be updated to take intoaccount the user's media consumption habits. At 1020, control circuitry604 queries the database of pre-defined differences for which storingshould be performed for the difference between the characteristicassociated with the version of the media asset that was previouslystored and the corresponding characteristic associated with the mediaasset.

It should be noted that processes 800-1000 or any step thereof could beperformed on, or provided by, any of the devices shown in FIGS. 6-7. Forexample, any of processes 800-1000 may be executed by control circuitry604 (FIG. 6) as instructed by the media guidance application implementedon user equipment 702, 704, and/or 706 (FIG. 7). In addition, one ormore steps of process 800-1000 may be incorporated into or combined withone or more steps of any other process or embodiment.

It is contemplated that the steps or descriptions of FIGS. 8-10 may beused with any other embodiment of this disclosure. In addition, thesteps and descriptions described in relation to FIG. 8-10 may be done inalternative orders or in parallel to further the purposes of thisdisclosure. For example, each of these steps may be performed in anyorder or in parallel or substantially simultaneously to reduce lag orincrease the speed of the system or method. Furthermore, it should benoted that any of the devices or equipment discussed in relation toFIGS. 6-7 could be used to perform one or more of the steps in FIGS.8-10.

The processes discussed above are intended to be illustrative and notlimiting. One skilled in the art would appreciate that the steps of theprocesses discussed herein may be omitted, modified, combined, and/orrearranged, and any additional steps may be performed without departingfrom the scope of the invention. More generally, the above disclosure ismeant to be exemplary and not limiting. Only the claims that follow aremeant to set bounds as to what the present invention includes.Furthermore, it should be noted that the features and limitationsdescribed in any one embodiment may be applied to any other embodimentherein, and flowcharts or examples relating to one embodiment may becombined with any other embodiment in a suitable manner, done indifferent orders, or done in parallel. In addition, the systems andmethods described herein may be performed in real time. It should alsobe noted that the systems and/or methods described above may be appliedto, or used in accordance with, other systems and/or methods.

1-51. (canceled)
 52. A method comprising: storing, in association with auser profile, a first version of a media asset; receiving a request tostore a second version of the media asset; determining, based on theuser profile, whether the first version is preferable to the secondversion; in response to determining, based on the user profile, thefirst version of the media asset is preferable to the second version ofthe media asset, causing a client device to generate for simultaneousdisplay a notification indicating a determination to refrain fromstoring the second version of the media asset and a user selectableoption to perform an action related to the first version of the mediaasset or the second version of the media asset; receiving a selection ofthe user selectable option to perform the action; and causing the actionto be performed.
 53. The method of claim 52, wherein the user selectableoption is an option to override the determination to refrain fromstoring the second version of the media asset and cause the secondversion of the media asset to be stored, and performing the actioncomprises storing the second version of the media asset.
 54. The methodof claim 53, wherein performing the action further comprises deletingthe first version of the media asset to free up storage space forstoring the second version of the media asset.
 55. The method of claim52, wherein the user selectable option is an option to transfer thefirst version of the media asset to a different storage device.
 56. Themethod of claim 52, further comprising: causing the client device togenerate for display information about the first version of the mediaasset that was previously stored along with the user selectable optionto perform the action.
 57. The method of claim 56, wherein theinformation about the first version of the media asset comprises atleast one of resolution or subtitle information of the first version ofthe media asset.
 58. The method of claim 52, wherein the first versionis stored at a remote server.
 59. The method of claim 52, wherein thefirst version is stored at a user equipment device.
 60. The method ofclaim 52, further comprising: monitoring media consumption habitsassociated with the user profile; wherein determining, based on the userprofile, the first version of the media asset is preferable to thesecond version of the media asset is based on the monitored mediaconsumption habits associated with the user profile.
 61. The method ofclaim 52, wherein: determining that the first version of the media assetwas previously stored by the user comprises: accessing a data structure,associated with the user profile, that contains information about mediaassets that were previously; determining, based on the user profile,whether the first version is preferable to the second version comprises:determining a characteristic associated with the first version of themedia asset that was previously stored; comparing the characteristicassociated with the first version of the media asset that was previouslystored with a corresponding characteristic associated with the secondversion of the media asset to identify a difference between thecharacteristic associated with the first version of the media asset thatwas previously stored and the corresponding characteristic associatedwith the second version of the media asset; and determining whether thedifference is included in a database of pre-defined differences forwhich storing should be performed; and determining, based on the userprofile, the first version of the media asset is preferable to thesecond version of the media asset comprises determining that thedifference is not included in the database of pre-defined differencesfor which storing should be performed.
 62. A system comprising: astorage device configured to: store, in association with a user profile,a first version of a media asset; control circuitry configured to:receive a request to store a second version of the media asset;determine, based on the user profile, whether the second version ispreferable to the first version; in response to determining, based onthe user profile, the first version of the media asset is preferable tothe second version of the media asset, cause a client device to generatefor simultaneous display a notification indicating a determination torefrain from storing the second version of the media asset and a userselectable option to perform an action related to the first version ofthe media asset or the second version of the media asset; receive aselection of the user selectable option to perform the action; and causethe action to be performed.
 63. The system of claim 62, wherein the userselectable option is an option to override the determination to refrainfrom storing the second version of the media asset and cause the secondversion of the media asset to be stored, and the control circuitry isconfigured to perform the action by storing the second version of themedia asset.
 64. The system of claim 63, wherein the control circuitryis configured to perform the action by deleting the first version of themedia asset to free up storage space for storing the second version ofthe media asset.
 65. The system of claim 62, wherein the user selectableoption is an option to transfer the first version of the media asset toa different storage device.
 66. The system of claim 62, wherein thecontrol circuitry is further configured to: cause the client device togenerate for display information about the first version of the mediaasset that was previously stored along with the user selectable optionto perform the action.
 67. The system of claim 66, wherein theinformation about the first version of the media asset comprises atleast one of resolution or subtitle information of the first version ofthe media asset.
 68. The system of claim 62, wherein the first versionis stored at a remote server.
 69. The system of claim 62, wherein thefirst version is stored at a user equipment device.
 70. The system ofclaim 62, wherein the control circuitry is further configured to:monitor media consumption habits associated with the user profile;determine, based on the user profile, the first version of the mediaasset is preferable to the second version of the media asset is based onthe monitored media consumption habits associated with the user profile.71. The system of claim 62, wherein: determining that the first versionof the media asset was previously stored by the user comprises:accessing a data structure, associated with the user profile, thatcontains information about media assets that were previously;determining, based on the user profile, whether the first version ispreferable to the second version comprises: determining a characteristicassociated with the first version of the media asset that was previouslystored; comparing the characteristic associated with the first versionof the media asset that was previously stored with a correspondingcharacteristic associated with the second version of the media asset toidentify a difference between the characteristic associated with thefirst version of the media asset that was previously stored and thecorresponding characteristic associated with the second version of themedia asset; and determining whether the difference is included in adatabase of pre-defined differences for which storing should beperformed; and determining, based on the user profile, the first versionof the media asset is preferable to the second version of the mediaasset comprises determining that the difference is not included in thedatabase of pre-defined differences for which storing should beperformed.